When I opened the door I found myself in front of a black haired woman.

She didn’t seem that cute but she had her charm: her hair was tied in a braid that fell through her right shoulder and ended in her not-so big yet not-so small chest. She was wearing the Academia’s uniform which consisted on brown boots, a provocative black skirt that didn’t reach her knees, a blue shirt made with fancy-looking fabric and some kind of grey vest. It was a very cool uniform if you ask me.

Even so the detail that really caught my attention was the pair of broken nerdy-looking glasses that she was wearing. But why was it so impressive for me? Because up until that moment I never saw someone using glasses. That means that it was whether a very uncommon thing in that world or they didn’t exist at all.

Still, I didn’t want to get too excited so I kept the conversation as if nothing happened.

“Uh…hmm…sorry, I didn’t know there was someone here”

“Ah! Do…don’t worry, I was actually waiting for you…” she said while playing with her hands a lot. She was clearly not used to social interactions, but I wasn’t either.

“W…waiting for me?”

“Yes! I…I heard we had p…partners so I thought it was better if I waited for you… Only that I thought you were a woman…”

“Well… Sorry for that… Anyway it is nice to meet you”

“Ah! Nice to meet you too! My name is Aoyama Mizuki!” she said while hastily bowing her head down. “She’s definitely Japanese!” I thought.

I smiled and then said: “You’re Japanese right?!”

“Yes! Are you a player too?! A beta tester?!”

“Yes I am! Oh god! It’s so great to see someone from the real world here!”

“I can’t belie… ah…ah” She started crying a bit but continued talking: “I can’t believe I found someone in this world. I felt so lonely…”

“Great” I thought “I’ve never known what to do if someone cries…”

“Uhhh… Don’t worry, it’s alright! I’m here for you”

“Thank you…”

“Oh I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Kurogawa Shiro. Nice to meet you Aoyama-san”

“Nice to meet you”

“Ah… I’m sorry that I need to bother you when you’re like this but there’s this ceremony we have to attend so can you turn around while I change?”

“AHHHHHH! YES!”

“Thanks”

She turned around while I opened the bag with the uniform. It contained the normal uniform and what it seemed to be a P.E uniform. I didn’t have much time so I changed rapidly and then started to appreciate my uniform. It was exactly the same as the one of Aoyama-san but it had a pair of black pants instead of a skirt.

After I while I got excited and couldn’t keep myself quiet.

“I look so good!” I said aloud.

Aoyama-san, who had her hands covering her eyes, slowly turned around to see me as if she didn’t want me to realize she was staring at me. I did notice her and when she found out I was looking at her, she rapidly turned around again.

“She may not be from this world but she’s quite a character” I thought while smiling and finishing to get ready.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!” she nervously answered.

“Oh, one more thing Aoyama-san”

“W…what?”

“I know this may be strange but I think we should call ourselves by our first names. People will find it strange if we don’t”

“B…but this is just a game! Does it really matter?”

“So she hasn’t realized it yet” I thought.

“Just help me with this, I’ll explain after the ceremony”

She answered with an “ok” but with the tone of her voice you could knew she was thinking “what the f*ck?”

As soon as she said that we left the room. There were a couple of persons in the aisle, but they weren’t as much as before. Most of the people were on the ceremony already.

We walked through the aisle and I stared at Lily’s room for a while.

I think Mizuki tried to say something but then stopped talking. Like if her action was just canceled by some powerful being.

We got to the stairs and walked down to the first floor.

I was thinking in a bunch of stuff when I realized that I was walking alone with a girl I just met.

“Crap! Should I tell her something?”

I thought of something and immediately talked: “Going through the stairs sure is exhausting uh?”

“Ah! Uhm… Yes”

“Why does she have to give such a short answer?” I sadly thought.

The whole trip kept quiet until we eventually reached the 1st floor. In that moment a question forced me to break the silence.

“Do you know where the ceremony is being held?”

“Uh! Yes I know…” I really hated how she always said “Ah!”or “Uh!” before answering a question. She never paid attention to her surroundings; she was always living in her own world. Although I hated that part of her because I was the same.

“Where is it?” I asked her.

“If we turn right we’ll get to the conference hall…”

“Thanks”

We turned right and after a minute or so we found the place. The place was almost full and I decided to sit in the last row to wait for Lily who didn’t seem to be there. Well, I thought I decided, but when I was going to sit, Mizuki already had sat in the last row. “The choice of an introvert” I thought.

I didn’t sit right beside her but one space after her because sitting beside a woman made me nervous and I was sure she would’ve felt the same.

Two minutes and 37 seconds passed (I was counting to not get bored) until Lily showed herself.

“She’s so beautiful” I was thinking while she entered.

I was about to tell her I was here but then I saw something I didn’t like: she had company.

The guy next to her was a very handsome young man from about our age with blonde hair and blue eyes. Damn he was gorgeous! Even I, who’s always been attracted to girls, girls with cat ears, female elves and more, could say that.

I thought about a lot of crap and felt really sad and betrayed. Then I thought for a moment and realized how stupid feeling like that was.

“Hey Shiro! You look nice in that uniform! I could even say you look handsome haha”

“Haha of course I’m handsome! You don’t look that bad either”

“C’mon, just be honest and tell how beautiful I am”

“Hahaha”

I felt so nice after that chat…

“Oh yes Shiro, let me introduce you to him: this is Kristian Aldridge a childhood friend of mine and my new roommate. Ain’t the world small?”

“Seriously?! A childhood friend?! That’s the most cliché thing in anime!” I said in my mind while smiling and shaking Kristian’s hand.

“Nice to meet you Kristian, my name is Shiro, Shiro Kurokawa”

“Wow that’s a strange name you have! Nice to meet you man!”

“He seems like a nice guy…” I thought.

“Uhm… Shiro, could you move to that empty space so we can sit?”

“Ah, yes”

And I found myself beside Mizuki again.

“S…sorry, I know this is uncomfortable” I whispered to Mizuki.

“Don’t worry! I actually feel…” She started lowering her voice to the point that I couldn’t hear what she said. I thought she said she was happy but that was probably my imagination playing a trick on me.

“Who is she?” asked Lily.

“She’s my roommate, Mizuki Aoyama”

“Wow! She also has an uncommon name. Nice to meet you Mizuki, my name is Lilynda Draserch but you can call me Lily” she said while extending her hand and closing her eyes.

“Nice to meet you Lily”

Finally the voice of Kristian interrupted us to say that the ceremony was about to start.

Suddenly the whole room got quiet and a guy appeared in the front. He transmitted an aura of respect and importance as he stood in the front quiet and looking to everyone.

“Good morning new students of our precious institution. My name is Cornaith Faerondaerl the principal of the school and one of the founders of the Academia Project.

First of all I want to say that I feel honored to have a lot of promising young talents gathered in this space. Second, I would like to tell you the purpose of this reunion: Academia Project was the name of the project started by the round table of Galdric and the king himself to train young people that want to become White Knights, Private Knights or even adventurers that’ll defeat the castle of Stoigom. For the king, it is very important to have mentally and physically strong people that will defend the country and that won’t be tempted by the powers of magic. It is also important that we have people that try to defeat the castle of Stoigom because thanks to the castle, Galdric has been able to move forward and even become the “Cultural Capital of the World”. The castle is not only the main attraction of the city but also the economic center of it”.

“That’s answers a lot…”

“Now that I’ve told you our goal I want to proceed and tell you how things work. You’ll spend a whole year here receiving high intensity training. I repeat, we want to make you both, physically and mentally strong. The first 6 months you’ll train your body and mind with very intense and difficult exercises. You’ll also be taught the basics of different fighting styles. This part is about the improvement and perfection of the body. What we want is to prepare you for the next stage. This leads me to the second semester. When you finish the first six months, you’ll have to choose one fighting style out of 5 available. These are: Light Swordsman, Heavy Swordsman, Alkymi Kriger, Ologun, and Berserkrs.

Now, I’m going to give a brief explanation of each one of these: Light Swordsmen are, as the name indicates, fast warriors who wield short and medium-sized swords. They’re very agile and usually give a lot of lethal strikes to the enemy. Heavy Swordsmen are the guys with best defense. They use big swords and don’t need to give a lot of strikes because with one is enough. Alkymi Krigers are people specialized in the use of alchemy. They understand how everything in the world works and reacts to different things. They use their knowledge to create special weapons that’ll help them in battle. They’re very tricky and hard to fight. Ologuns are warriors that understand how their body functions and how to improve it. They fight bare-handed and are experts in martial arts and in the use of “Agbara” the natural energy that flows through our body. Finally the Berserkrs are warriors that imitate the terrible and destructive force of the ancient group of the Ulfhednar but with more control of themselves. They are expert in different types of weapons and often use axes, maces and morning stars among others.

Anyway, in six months you’ll choose one of these disciplines and master it”

After that he told us some rules about the place like “girls and boys can’t bath together” and “you have to wash your own clothes” and that kind of stuff.

The meeting finally ended and we went to have lunch.

The four of us sat in the same table and talked about some trivial things. Well, Lily and Kristian led the conversation while Mizuki and I heard them talking and very occasionally said something.

I got to know Kristian better and I realized that he was actually a very interesting and funny guy. I’ve always liked this kind of people since they don’t discriminate you for not talking or being social. They talk to you normally and they help you feel integrated. I know a couple of persons like that and, after all these years, they’re still good friends of mine.

But back to the story: after lunch we went together and saw some exhibition battles that were performed by the professors and already graduated students.

The most interesting fight was definitely the one between an Ologun and a Berserkr.

The Berserkr ran and tried to do a rash attack. The Ologun incredibly blocked the attack of the axe with the Index and Mid fingers of her right hand. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

The Ologun then grabbed the blade of the axe with her hand and threw it away. She rapidly counterattacked but the Berserkr pulled her arm and threw her to the other side of the “ring” but she nimbly moved her body to fall on her hands just to throw herself and kick the berserkr in the face.

“Holy cow this is a great fight!”

I was enjoying the fight with everyone else when I heard a familiar voice.

“The f¨ck are you doing here noob?”

I turned around just to see the face of anger of Kevlin Einhearst, the guy who beat me in the admission test.

“What do you think? I’m here ‘cause I got accepted”

“Hmm terrible mistake from that guy Melinor”

“And what are you doing here? If you were the best student in the Academia then why are you not fighting?”

“Hmm. That’s because this is my first semester here”

“What? Then why did you self-proclaimed the best student in the Academia?”

“Because I got the best score in the test and I’ve always been the best in everything I do. Simple as that”

“Hahaha what? I had a bit of respect for you since you are strong but I think I just lost it. You’re nothing more than a narcissist son of a…”

“Time to go”

In that moment, Kristian grabbed me from my arm and took me somewhere else.

“I’m sorry Shiro but there were some professors over there and they were about to interrupt”

“Oh, Really? Thank you Kristian you really helped me”

“Don’t worry. By the way, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you. Is it ok if we go to bath together in the night?”

“Oh! What an indecent proposition from such a gorgeous guy!” I said to him with the voice of a perverted fujoshi.

“Haha don’t worry, I’m not into that. And if I were, it wouldn’t be with you”

“What?! I got hypothetically rejected by a very handsome guy! My self-esteem is on the floor…”

“Hahaha anyway, see you there”.

The time passed and we eventually met in the bathroom. I got myself a towel from the bag I didn’t have the time to check.

The bathroom was different from the ones in Japan. There were only tons of individual showers of 1meterx1meter. Kristian got in one and I entered the one beside him.

I started taking a good bath when suddenly he began a conversation.

“Lily told me you’ve been through a lot…”

“Yes, it’s been such a story”

“Being away from the ones you love isn’t easy. What you’re trying to do is incredible but I want you to know that I support you”

“Wow, thank you man. It means a lot”

“Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to tell you”

“Uh? What is it then?”

“The thing is the Lily doesn’t stop to talk about you. That she’s never met someone like you and stuff. What I’m trying to say is that she really likes you.”

I didn’t know what to say. My face got red and I got really nervous.

“She… likes me…”

“But here comes the difficult part”

“Hmm?”

“I also like her, a lot. And I want you to know that I’ll do anything possible to make her fall in love with me before she does with you.”

“…”

“And finally what I want to say is… even though we may fight for a girl I hope we can still be friends because I think we can become good friends”

“…”

“Anything to say?”

“I’ll do my best”

That phrase ended the conversation. We both headed to our rooms and went to rest.

But that wasn’t the end of the night, for me at least. Something important happened afterwards and I’m about to tell you.

I went to my room while thinking on everything Kristian said to me.

The night was quiet and the light of the candles were my only companions in the lonely building. The candles and people like me who were wandering around and thinking. It was early actually but I wanted to sleep already since the next day was going to be very exhausting.

I reached my room and stared at the door silently wondering if I should enter or not.

At the end I entered and saw Mizuki preparing herself to sleep.

“Hey” I said to her.

“H…hey…”

We kept quiet for a while. I changed to some “pajamas”, laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

For five minutes or so I stared at it while wondering if I should talk to Mizuki or not.

I turned my head to the left and saw Mizuki staring at me with a face that clearly showed she wanted to say something too.

“Are you also thinking in what to say?”

“Hmm, yes” she said that while laughing a bit.

“We’re not that different you know? We’re both very shy and don’t know how to properly talk to others”

“That’s not true! You’re such a good speaker! I saw you talking with Lily and Kristian very normally!”

“That’s because it is very easy for me to speak with people like them. They’re very extroverted don’t you think?”

“Well, that’s true… B…By the way S…shiro-san”

“Hmm?”

“What did you like doing in real life? J…just for conversation”

“In real life? Well… I’m not very proud of this… I really liked watching anime, reading books and mangas and playing videogames… I was an otaku with no friends at all…”

“Really?! You like anime?”

“More than I should…”

“Me too! To be honest I didn’t have much friends back at home because I don’t know how to properly talk to them and I’m afraid that they say I’m not interesting because I like anime. I was afraid of talking to you because you’re very handsome…”

I got blushed a bit, and then smiled. “You really were afraid of me because of that? Well, it’s not as if I don’t understand you, is just that… I never thought I’ll be on the other side”

“And what animes did you like?”

“Oh I really love fantasy ones. They’re my favorites along with slice of life and adventure. You?”

“Well… I love yaoi and shoujo haha but I also appreciate a good ecchi or he…”

“he…? Oh”

“Forget that please!” She yelled before throwing her pillow at me.

“Hahaha I won’t tell anyone don’t worry. Well, is not like I can tell someone…”

“I guess you’re right…”

After that we talked and talked and talked over different topics, mainly anime.

I still remember that cold night where we broke ice and got to know us better. Since then, she’s been a precious friend of mine, sometimes something more but I won’t tell you about that now…

“By the way, there’s something I wanted to ask you”

“What is it?”

“Why do you have purple eyes? Contact lenses?”

“Oh that’s quite a story: at some point of my misadventure I ran into two mages that were really amazed by my glasses. Then, they offered me to cure my eyes, which I accepted. They did it and told that I had to wait for a week for it to make effect and my eyes would change color. It was cool so I didn’t care”

“Haha well that’s a nice story. I have a lot of crazy stories too”

I told her some of my stories and then she told some of them. We had so much fun that we almost didn’t sleep.

Finally, without noticing, my eyes simply close and that was the end of the day.

Hey guys! I think I got a bit too excited with this one but anyway, here you have! As I said, I'll try to keep one chapter a week so stay tuned! Opinions, reviews and advices are always welcome :3