School [4]

Leaving where they were, Junya could realize that they were actually in the middle of nowhere on a large powerplant, which was situated beside an abandoned community.

"Do you own all of that?" Junya asked in slight surprise, at first he thought that she only owned a small part of it, but looking at it and thinking some more, he never deemed it impossible.

It was no doubt that the structure would have cost a lot, along with the plot of land and the building that was abandoned, which made him wonder how she could have afforded the price tag of something like that.

"Shouldn't you be thinking about your first day of school instead? Do you know what Major you want to go into?"

Alice dodged this question while attempting to fix his uniform emblem and his golden shoulder chords.

"I never even expected much after arriving here, It stills feels surreal, a lot of things."

Junya actually never thought of a Major, or rather he never had the time. His life literally took a 180, while he suddenly found himself looking at another path to walk. He was miserable when he never unlocked his Elo command, Imani was one of the only things being borderline suicidal in most cases.

A little thinking back, Junya could only rationalize himself running away as an attempt to meet his demise.

"Stop being such a sour puss, If you keep sulking and thinking about your life at Berger town you're going to miss what's right in front of your eyes." Alice snapped, lacing her voice with suppressed fury.

Her hand made a slight movement and grabbed the top of his head, turning it toward the window.

Junya was quickly taken in but the stunning view of mountains that sported beautiful and lush forestry, a light layer of fog gently but steadily cascaded down the slope and into the valley.

"Keep looking behind you and you will miss what's in front, Making something like that is something that you will definitely live to regret."

Alice's voice became a lot calmer when talking to him which gave him time to think.

"I'm sorry, it's just hard to forget about it sometimes." Junya snapped out of his pitless delusions.

"You can't keep thinking like this when you have a chance many wishes for. It's actually against the law for someone to enter another sheltered area. Only if the person has family that requests his citizenship will it be allowed."

"Then how did i...."

"Well it definitely wasn't your mom's family, they disowned her, so you are just another person to them."

Thinking to himself, he knew Amus must have pulled some strings to get him in.

Although he couldn't be more wrong thinking Amus simply pulled strings to get his stay, Alice never bothered correcting his assumptions.

The two spoke to each other more which made half an hour seem like a minute.

"Mam, I think we are close by..."

The driver interrupted making them look through the front windshield. Although they hadn't arrived yet, Junya could see a number of large buildings erected within the plateau of a mountain, in the distance.

The school seemed like someone would see in a diamond in the way it sparkled in the sun, which made it look fake.

"We will arrive in another 45 minutes mam"

"Good." Alice gave the man a nod before turning toward Junya. "Have you given any thought to what major you choosing?"

"Not really, I will make a decision once I arrive and know what I can choose from"

Alice nodded, "Make sure you study what each Major will require of you and your curriculum."

Silently agreeing, Junya started thinking for himself.

'I really don't know of anything that I could major in. I don't even know how many courses there are, meaning if there are limited choices I might get stuck with something I don't like.'

Seconds later, he shrugged.

'We'll see when we're there'

***

Alice could see the school coming into her vision while staring, letting her mind drift far.

'He doesn't seem to hate me after putting him through all that training. Not to mention how well he is hiding the amount of fatigue he is feeling, maybe he really is taking this seriously, hopefully, it seems like he isn't letting his past cloud his vision',

This made her feel a little better.

'I guess I can't train him as hard while he is taking classes...'

Mentally she shrugged. 'Meh, I'll figure something out.'

'Question is how will he do in school, I doubt there are many people that will bully him. His ex-family won't align themselves with him which would be a good thing if I didn't know how they were prideful assholes that would make his life hard for the fact that his mom was cut off from the family.'

While she never showed anything on the surface, it was important to hear about his well-being but hid her worry behind a stone-cold face.

While sorting her thoughts with her eyes closed, relaxing and enjoying the smooth ride she could feel the car decelerating to a slow crawl.

"Po, You falling asleep-" Alice opened her eyes and her voice veered off. What she was seeing was enough answers to her questions.

'Are they really doing it this year?' Alice said to herself ignoring Junya's curious gaze. 'I guess this should be expected since it's almost a tradition to hold a test at the beginning of the school year. It looks like it hasn't started yet based on the number of people waiting'

The driver slowed the car to a crawl and fell in line behind other cars that were waiting to gain entrance on the final road toward the academy.

The sounds of stone crunched audibly as the car came to a halt. In front of it was a guard with his outstretched arm looking suspiciously into the car with scrunched brows.

After peering through the tints, he pointed down twice signalling to lower the windows. This made Po side-eye Alice who nodded.

The guard said nothing but observed the car from the driver's side. After, they walked around to Alice's window as she winded it down handing him a card.

Junya was busy observing the guards through his window see she handed him an ID card.

The guards were wearing the same uniform as Junya, minus the different medallions and badges which he lacked.

"Good morning, Teacher, There will be a fitness test that the school academy decided to carry out for this year." The guards quickly bowed their heads toward her and then explained.

'Teacher?' Junya thought.

"Hmm," Alice never bothered to give a reply.

The awkward situation, caused the guards to chuckle weirdly and looked toward Junya. "If there is a student in the car, I request you let them step out or you won't be able to proceed to school."

"Says who?" Alice replied almost instantly. Her shocked tone made the guard realize his poor choice of words. Instead of making it sound like a guarantee that she would not be able to pass.

Alice was defiant by nature and ran things to her own accord. As a Mobster that went roaming, being told what to do was something neither the government nor the B.M.A could do, this made the guard's words almost laughable.

The guards attempted to change his words, but a lump rose into his throat. If he changed his words, that would mean neglecting his duties.