Chapter 56| Team Draw

Chapter 56: Chapter 56| Team Draw

Zane arrived at Classroom 1-A at 8:25 AM.

He found his usual seat located at the middle row, aisle, and sightline to both exits. Dropped his bag and sat down.

Two chairs behind him he heard a familiar sound. The specific quiet of someone settling into a seat with practiced efficiency.

He turned around.

Maren.

She looked up from her notebook when she felt his eyes. Gave him a small wave. Smiled briefly. The corner of her mouth doing the thing it did when she was in a good mood without announcing it.

He nodded back and turned around.

The timer surfaced in the corner of his vision.

『 BOUND TARGET QUEST — Time Remaining: 9 days 21 hours 31 minutes 』

’Good morning to you too,’ he thought.

The door opened at exactly 8:30 AM.

Bang!

Instructor Vael walked in with her folder and the expression she always had. Somewhere between focused and mildly entertained by whatever the room was about to produce.

She set her folder on the desk and looked across the class.

"My students," she said. "You’re all looking as bright as ever."

A few students near the front said something appreciative. Someone in the back made a sound that could generously be described as agreement.

Vael let it settle.

"You may have noticed it," she said, "but you all are forty two intake students this year have been split into two sections. Year 1-A — that’s you — and Year 1-B." She looked around the room. "I’m in charge of this section. My assistant will be handling 1-B until their main instructor comes back from vacation." A pause. "Now. Today we are not doing theory."

The room shifted.

"It will be a practical drill," Vael said. "And I will need you all to be in teams of four. Which means we have an odd number situation. Twenty one students in this section, which does not divide cleanly into groups of four." She opened her folder. "So I invited three second year volunteers to even things out." She looked at the door. "You can come in."

The door opened.

Dex walked in first.

Then two students Zane didn’t recognise. A tall girl with her hair in a bun and a lean guy who looked like he’d rather be somewhere else but had committed to being here anyway.

They were already in their hero suits. Fitted, functional, the NSA emblem visible on each.

Zane’s eyes went to the girl immediately.

’Wow,’ he thought. ’She does pack a punch. That suit is doing considerable structural work right now. If her boobs are this big even from her suit wonder how it would be within.’ He smirked.

The system surfaced.

『 This is the Zane I know. 』

’Shut up,’ Zane thought.

『 I’m simply acknowledging growth. 』

’That’s not growth,’ Zane thought.

『 It is absolutely growth. Week one you were cataloguing archetypes. Now you are appreciating them. Progress. 』

Zane looked forward before anyone clocked where his eyes had been.

Dex scanned the room. Found Zane. Gave him the specific nod of someone who had volunteered for something and was already regretting it slightly.

Zane looked at him.

’Of course it’s Dex,’ he thought.’Always surprising me one way or another’.

"These three will serve as the equaliser for today’s teams," Vael said. "Now." She picked up a small ballot box from beside her desk and set it on the front table. "Each of you will draw a number from this box. The number tells you which team you’re on. Six teams of four. No swapping. No negotiating. Whatever you draw is where you go."

She gestured at Dex.

He carried the ballot box along the rows.

Zane took his paper. Unfolded it.

Team 3.

He looked around the room. A few other students checking their numbers, finding their teams, the social mathematics of random assignment already producing reactions across the room.

He surveyed his classmates properly for the first time in a while.

Maren was there. Two rows behind him, already checking her paper. Ryan somewhere near the window, looking at his number with the composed assessment of someone who had already decided to make whatever he drew work. A few other faces he recognised from classes and corridors.

Nyx and Sera were almost certainly in 1-B.

’Different section,’ he thought. ’Makes sense.’

Vael called the teams out. Students found each other. The room reorganised itself from rows into clusters.

Zane looked at his paper again.

Team 3.

He looked up and continued to scan the room. Students were still checking their numbers, finding their teams, the social mathematics of random assignment already producing reactions.

Then he spotted Maren two rows back checking her own paper.

He held up his number toward her.

She looked at it. Looked at hers. Looked back at him.

"You got Team 3 too?" she said.

"Yeah," Zane replied.

She walked over and stopped beside him. Then reached over and tapped his shoulder once.

"Be hospitable to me," she said.

Zane looked at her.

"Always," he said. "You’re my training partner. That comes with full hospitality."

She looked at him for a second. Something shifted slightly in her expression. Not the calculating stillness, something softer than that.

"Good answer," she said quietly.

She almost smiled at that.

Vael’s voice cut through the room before she could continue talking.

"Now that you’ve all picked and seen your teams," Vael said, already moving toward the door, "let’s head out. Follow me."

They all ended up outside thirty minutes later.

Not the training grounds. Not the practical complex.

Somewhere Zane genuinely had not known existed. A secondary facility behind the east wing that the academy apparently kept for exactly this kind of session. Larger than the practical complex. Open air but enclosed by high composite walls. Three distinct terrain zones visible from the entrance. It had flat ground, elevated platforms connected by walkways, and a lower section with obstacles built into the floor.

Vael stood at the entrance with her hands behind her back looking entirely unsurprised by the room’s reaction to the space.

"I knew you’d all look at it like that," she said. "Yes it exists. Yes it’s been here the whole time. No you weren’t told about it because you weren’t ready for it until now." She looked across the six teams standing at the entrance. "Welcome to the secondary practical facility. You’ll be spending considerable time here going forward."