Niko gorged himself with food as a multitude of other students stared, almost enthralled, in the sheer quantities of material being stuffed into his body. Five pizza slices, two hamburgers, two bowls of assorted vegitables and another two full of fruits, some soup which Niko couldn't recognize, but which tasted like bacon, a bowl of various types of pasta with meat sauce, and a pile of bread and bagel pieces amounted for most of the biomass which was mounted on his food tray. "Is he a competative eater?" "Even competitive eaters couldn't eat like that." The voices around Niko made him feel greatly self-conscious while devouring his mountain of food, as if they thought he was putting on a show. Unfortunately, with the quantity of food which Niko had on his tray, it took him fifteen minutes to devour it all, even with his superb food-eating technique. Upon consuming the final bagel piece on the tray, leaving nothing but plates, bowls and silverware, he casually wiped off the debris from his face as a group of people applauded behind his back.
Despite the massive feast, Niko's rather slim chest did not seem to bulge outwards as much as the law of conservation of mass might suggest that it should. In fact, once Niko placed his tray and empty dishes on the dishwasher station, he walked over to the desert section and took a piece of cake and some chocolate frozen yogurt from the dispenser and walked back over to his seat. He noticed that many of the people around his seat were staring at him before he even arrived, so he determined that, to avoid their gazes, he would sit elsewhere. With a rather nervous expression, Niko turned left sharply before arriving at the table which he previously sat at, and made his way over to the far corner of the room. The eating area was still rather packed, however it appeared that people were not streaming in as quickly any more, for closing time was steadily approaching and most people were already at the door when dinner hour started.
As Niko found yet another seat of relative solitude, he decided to look out a nearby window while consuming his food. Something he saw reminded him about his thought from earlier that very day. [I’ll have to be careful to sit in a more discreet area tomorrow…and take a more normal amount of food.] Something about these words sounded irrelevant now. I have already wound up attracting more attention than I know what to do with. I suppose being discrete really isn't my specialty. He looked down at his empty bowl of frozen yogurt, feeling a rather intense pain from an undefined region of his head as he stared at its emptiness. It's....cold. He sighed as he continued staring out the window and waiting for the roof of his mouth to warm up again. He felt that something about this university was surreal, that there was good reason to be paranoid, but he hadn't discovered a single piece of evidence about the place to support this feeling thus far in his experience.
After giving himself a few more moments to complete his train of thought, Niko once again placed the property of the cafeteria on the dishwasher station counter and, now feeling satisfied with the amount of food he had consumed, Niko left the cafeteria. He still felt the eyes of the students from before following his back as he left, so he picked up the pace as he retreated back to his dorm building. Once he arrived at his dorm room, he went about moving thing around in his room to make it as comfortable, defensible and efficient as he could. Upon completing the first section of his room with the desk and the bed, he moved on to the closet. Within the closet were three sets of the same uniform: three grey jackets, three button-down white shirts, and three sets of grey slacks. There were also a few strange red bands placed on the floor along with a few metal clip things, all of which perplexed Niko and left him wondering what purpose they served. Were they wrist bands? No, too big. Were they meant to be worn on the leg? Impossible, the pant leg width was much greater. Niko's only clue was his vague memory of the other people's uniforms, especially that blonde-haired female from earlier - they all had colored bands on their upper arms. Niko still felt that the bands would look out of place on his upper arm, but compared with the rest of the clothing of the uniform, it wasn't that difficult to surmise.
Upon placing the rest of his extra clothing in the closet and organizing it to a level of perfection never thought to be attainable by man, Niko closed the closet and made his way over to the bathroom. The bathroom was rather simple and small, with a doored-off shower, a toilet, and a sink-area, complete with storage areas underneath and a rather large mirror above. There was no adequate place to place bars of soap or liquid soap dispensers, but Niko supposed that that fact made the sink easier to clean. After briefly organizing what few supplies were located in the bathroom already and washing his hands to test out the sink, he walked back over to his bed and flopped down. This is far better than that noisy apartment..... He thought, trying to stay positive. Still, something about the room, no, the entire campus was making him feel on-edge. No matter how many times he checked for bugs and other observation/surveillance equipment in the room, he still felt like he was being watched. I guess it's time to get used to this feeling... he thought, staring up at the white ceiling. It took him awhile, but eventually, he decided to start working on the homework prescribed on the sheet of paper he found on his desk earlier upon his arrival.
After enough time, the 3rd day dawned.
-Dawn of the 3rd Day - Tuesday, December 16-
Niko awoke at 5:20am feeling refreshed and ready. He went through his morning routine of checking for assassins or other things worth being paranoid about, then brushed his teeth, washed his face, showered lazily, and changed into his new uniform. Despite being a size too large for him, Niko still felt more restricted in the uniform than he did in his favorite outfit. It had fewer pockets to store equipment and technology in, what little he did store in the uniform was easily observable due to the trim lines of the clothing, and Niko was absolutely sure that the armband on his arm was going to get caught on something before the day was done. Nonetheless, once Niko gathered the stuff he needed for the first half of the day into his backpack, he set out to the cafeteria.
Niko was surprised to find that the cafeteria was not open at 6:00 am. In fact, it was not going to open for another half hour. This forced the white-haired boy to walk around campus and try to bide his time while avoiding as many people as possible. Niko was used to far more people being around at this time of day, however it appeared that the few students who were awake at this hour were very busy, and were either rushing around or were writing/painting/taking pictures of stuff like their lives depended on it. The vibe of his surroundings made Niko feel as if he was missing out on something or was just generally being lazy. However, as soon as one person started walking up to him as if he wanted to talk, Niko quickly turned tail and speed-walked away.
Finally, at 6:30, Niko rushed back over to the cafeteria. The doors didn't open for another few minutes, which made Niko curse his luck as well as the lazy cafeteria attendants. Nevertheless, Niko soon gained access to his meal, and hastily devoured the piles of biomass with a blissful lack of company. Once he was done with his meal, Niko walked over to the building where his first class was held within - Physical Education. Niko's preconceptions of this class involved running from bears or practicing martial arts or even skirmishing with other students for training. In fact, Niko was curious just to see what kind of arena this class would be held in at a campus such as the one which he stood in. If they have to keep fences up, surely they must be protecting the outside world from something gruesome and intolerably violent. He was blissfully ignorant of the actual circumstances of the class, which he soon discovered upon arriving at the gym.
Upon entering into the gym building, he was greeted by a group of adults behind a counter. "Welcome! You must be the new kid, Niko!" spoke one of the older men in the group of adults. Niko stared at the man while holding the left strap of his backpack, utterly silent as his expression of surprise shot across his face. The room was filled with weaponry, such as heavy-looking maces and poles, however all of the devices had weights on both sides, and appeared to range in sizes, despite the smallest being the most practical. Niko didn't bother responding to the man, as he was certain that he would continue with what he wanted to say if given the time, so Niko continued looking around at his surroundings. Merchandise, posters, television sets, strange rubber bands, odd devices with screens and levers and bars and cusions, and much, much more awaited from beyond a set of glass panes. Far from his view, Niko could see a different set of glass panes, in which a blank room was stationed. Sure enough, the man continued to speak soon after Niko looked away and started eyeing the room, although all four of the adults were somewhat surprised by the boy's lack of response. "You're here for my Physical Education class, aren't you?" the man asked, offering a pleasant smile to Niko before heading around the counter and over to where Niko stood.
This time, having finished his surface-level observations of his surroundings, Niko nodded in agreement with the man before him. The man had an unsettling beard and a disheveled hairstyle which gave Niko the initial impression that he was the beast master or trainer of the opponents which he and the rest of the class would be facing, however his friendly smile and lack of harmful intent simultaneously shot down this impression while also unnerving Niko. The height of the man and the bulk of his physique had precisely the same effect as his smile. The man chuckled as Niko remained silent, staring up at him as if calculating whether or not to run, then commented, "Class doesn't start for another half hour. You're quite early! How about I guide you over to the locker room so you can get changed?" Niko continued to stare at the man, however this time, he was actually in shock. "L-Locker...room? Wh-What is that" Niko asked, his voice leaving his mouth with an unintended lack of composure as his heart desperately tried to escape through his throat.
The man shot a look of surprise to Niko, as if the question had sounded suspicious to him, and Niko's heart nearly stopped. Oh I hope that didn't sound suspicious. The man chuckled after a few seconds, then started walking away from the counter, further into the building. "It's a room full of lockers, where you get changed. You could also call it a changing room. Your locker number is 73. The showers start ice cold and remain that way for the first 20 seconds no matter how high you turn the heat up. When you're done changing, go through the door on the far end of the room and you'll enter the gym. Go ahead and get used to the layout however you want. Class starts at 8." Niko felt somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of foreign information which the man was telling him at this juncture, however, once the man opened the door to the men's locker room, he suddenly understood what the man was talking about. "Thanks" Niko murmured, bowing slightly to the man before entering the room.
The locker room smelled like steam and soap and, to a lesser extent, sweat. As Niko wandered around, he noticed a large number of benches, metal storage units, showers, and bathroom stalls. There were sinks as well, which made this entire room feel more like an extra-large bathroom, and there was even a super-hot room with heated rocks in the middle. Niko found his locker, number 73, after a few minutes and decided to open it to see what was within. He was surprised to find another set of clothes within this "locker", a set which was far less massive and which appeared more similar to his favorite outfit. Niko hastily changed into this set of clothes, as he was already annoyed with the standard uniform's ruggedness, and attempted a few acrobatic maneuvers with the benches to see how it compared to his other outfit. What Niko discovered was that it was extremely conducive to movement, however it had no storage space at all, meaning that Niko would be unable to keep his extra headset battery with him when he walked into the gym. Seeing as the class only lasted one hour, Niko was not very worried about this.
As he was previously instructed, Niko walked out into the gym and wandered around to grow accustomed to the new room. It was empty. The floors were constructed with a cheaply waxed and varnished white oak, and the walls were partially covered in cushions, suggesting that this room was built more for the safety of its inhabitants than for their training thereof. The room was, nonetheless, extremely large, and had multiple pieces of equipment built into the ceiling and higher up along the walls, along with a multitude of lines and dots and other markings on the floor. Niko spent a few minutes walking around to discern what the meaning of the markings was, but could not figure it out. As Niko explored, he discovered that a few racks of strange rubber balls were positioned at regular intervals along the walls of the room. Upon picking one up, Niko immediately found that it was too soft and easily compressible to be considered a weapon, and was probably meant for skirmishing or boxing. Niko quickly threw a few towards the other wall to test the dynamics of the new tool, and found that they were best used after being condensed into their minimum size so that the air resistance acting against their movement was reduced maximally.
Niko continued playing around with the dodgeballs for awhile, eventually reaching the point at which the balls would bounce off of the wall and return all the way back to him. Then, Niko noticed the clock on one of the walls far from the locker room entrance doors. 7:50. People would begin entering the room at any moment. Niko hastily collected the balls which he had already thrown, which were now dispersed throughout the room, and returned them to their storage units. By the time the first person entered the room, a girl whom Niko did not recognize, Niko was leaning against the wall and relaxing as he awaited the start of whatever awaited him that morning.
More and more people streamed out of the locker rooms, mostly in groups, and with growing frequency as the clock steadily grew closer and closer to 8:00. Even the teacher arrived in the room after awhile, although he was dressed in the same clothes which he had been wearing behind the counter earlier that morning. Once the class began, Niko gathered with everyone else, although he still remained at least an arm's reach away from the nearest person, and awaited the teacher's instructions. After a brief "good morning" introduction from the teacher, the class was split into two groups based solely on luck of the draw, and which were identified by arbitrary colors. Niko was selected for the blue team, as the red team apparently had "too many people". Before long, the teacher announced the rules of engagement for the training session, namely that being hit by one of the balls would be detrimental for one's team, but that catching a ball would be beneficial for one's team. The teacher also determined that, for some reason, aiming for the head was to be avoided, despite it being the most optimal target for a marksman beside the center of mass.
After Niko identified all of the rules into his mind and readied himself for the engagement, he walked to the back wall of the blue side, eyeing his competition. The teams were not very large, perhaps only 10-14 people per team, but the number of balls along the middle line of the room was far fewer- perhaps only 7. Niko was determined to get at least three so that his team could more optimally avoid casualties. Once the game began, Niko launched himself off of the wall and sprinted for the middle line. He easily arrived there first and nimbly shifted along the mid-court line as he swooped up a few of the dodgeballs. He managed to get three, as he predicted, before the next in line was swooped up by the next fastest person, so he decided to quickly rush back to the wall so that he could begin lobbing his munitions. Once he tapped the wall, he ran back towards the center line so that he would have the most optimal distance from his targets. Instantly upon arriving at the line, he threw his first condensed dodgeball at the nearest person, aiming for the cap of their knee. The ball made a whistling sound as it flew, carrying with it enough kinetic energy to make a shocking "THWACK" sound as it connected with the person's knee. The unfortunate boy who was the target of Niko's first strike instantly collapsed to the ground as his knee flew forwards, the combined shock of being hit, jolted, and reflexed shifting his weight backwards and causing him to fall.
As this was happenning, Niko grabbed the other dodgeball from the crook of his arm and started condensing both of the last two dodgeballs at the same time. The boy on the ground was still cursing as Niko started aiming at his next target - a black-haired girl with a ball who was about to reach the back wall of her side. Niko launched the ball at the girl's center of mass with the same whistle and "THWACK" sound, however, this time it sent the girl flying forwards, and the ball was sent back to its sender, arriving shortly at Niko's feet.
These first two exchanges happened in the course of five seconds, resulting in an adequate amount of shock from the few people who were paying any attention to the game thus far. Niko used his left arm to throw yet another ball towards a boy at the far end of the other side of the room, who had successfully reached the wall and now appeared to be planning an assault on him. "THWACK." The boy made a quick sound of shock as his right shoulder, which was connected to the arm which held the ball, was hit by a dodgeball. The boy dropped the ball he was holding and stepped backwards a few times in shock, unable to comprehend how he was already targetted and hit with a dodgeball.
The ball which hit that boy did not roll all the way back to the side which Niko was on, however it was close enough to the mid-court line that anyone could reach out and grab it, so Niko was satisfied with the result. He bent down and picked up the dodgeball which was at his feet, which had bounced off of the black-haired girl's back, and he re-condensed it as he considered whom his next most optimal target would be. There were two present aggressors in his vision, so Niko surmised that he would have to target one or the other, then adopt a defensive approach until he was re-armed. The opponents forces were significantly reduced as a result of Niko's primary onslaught, but they were now fixated on Niko primarily as a target, which put him in a position of danger. In the corner of his eye, Niko noticed the aggressor whom he was not primarily focusing on begin to set up a throw, so Niko launched his dodgeball at that target - a brown-haired boy who was rather bulky compared to some of the other members of his team. "THWACK" This time, the ball landed even more harshly on the man's lower chest. However, the ball which Niko threw did not roll back as far as he hoped it would, probably because the boy had forgotten to steel himself before taking the hit, and had left his abdominal muscles soft.
The man immediately collapsed to the floor and gasped for air, as if he had been punched in the chest, and Niko hastily took a few steps back. A few of his team mates were just now starting to move forwards from the back wall, and the other aggressor was hesitating despite having the optimal opportunity to assault Niko. Niko heard a few mumbles of surprise and shock from the people around him, as if something incredible had happened, but he was too busy anticipating the enemy movements and planning his next assault. Niko stood around halfway between the back wall and the mid-court line, awaiting an opportunity to renew his assault as his eyes shifted from one opponent to the next. After a second, Niko finally recognized one of the opponents - it was the blonde-haired girl from the other day! Niko decided in a fleeting thought that he'd target her last as a sign of mercy, then continued scanning the opposition for opportunities. Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder from behind.
Niko quickly turned around, surprise covering his face, and he stared at the person who had touched him. It was a man who was even skinnier than he was, and who held a dodgeball in his available hand. "Go get 'em." The boy said, offering the ball to Niko. Niko nodded, slightly suspicious that the boy would be offering his chance to improve his skill to another, then accepted the dodgeball and turned around to see another dodgeball flying straight towards him. Niko used his empty left hand to catch the ball, crushing the material so that it couldn't escape his grasp on the rebound as he interposed his hand between the ball and his hip. He then looked over to see the aggressor from earlier, a somewhat petite, brown-haired girl, and almost instantly sent the ball back over to her. Because he wasn't able to condense the ball this time, it landed with less impact than he had anticipated, however the girl was complaining, "Oh my gosh, stop it already! You caught the ball! Stop rubbing it in!" But Niko's surprise was registered more thoroughly by the fact that his teammates were now assaulting the opposing team. Two of the balls which were thrown hit the ground before even making it to opposing players, suggesting that his teammates had weak arms, but one managed to hit an opposing member. Unfortunately, said member caught the ball before it reached the ground, causing the first casualty on his team.
Niko frowned, somewhat angered by the fact that the enemy team now had more munitions than his own team did, but was consoled by the fact that the enemy team was halved by this point. He was once again in the position in which he had to choose between getting revenge on the aggressor who caught his team member's dodgeball and assaulting one of the other two aggressors on the enemy team who presented more of a present threat. He ultimately determined to assault one of the male aggressors, seeing a prime opportunity as he looked over to one of his fellow team members and was thusly distracted. "THWACK" The boy was hit on the side of his chest, meaning that Niko had missed his mark. The ball, however, flew off of the boy and hit the girl whom he was standing beside, then bounced down and hit the ground. Niko retreated after this, realizing that his team would sustain heavy casualties, and quickly said, "retreat and adopt defensive tactics!" Although it appeared that he was talking to himself, because the rest of the team was busy soaking in their present advantage and rushing towards the mid-court line. Only those who appeared weak remained by the back wall, including the guy who gave Niko his own dodgeball and two others.
Of course, the enemy team took this grand opportunity to make a resurgence, launching balls at Niko's team members, none of whom were able to catch even a single dodgeball. Niko hastily rushed forwards after the enemy's assault and grabbed one of the dodgeballs which didn't roll all the way back to the enemy team's side of the room, but his own forces were nearly reduced by a quarter as a result of the onslaught. Niko's team hastily rushed back to the back wall to reduce their casualties, realizing that they didn't have the advantage, and Niko took a few steps forwards to increase his threat for the enemy team. One person from the other team, a guy, threw a ball towards one of Niko's team mates simultaneously with another person from his team, thus two balls shot towards one of the girls who was next to Niko. Niko recognized this tactic and dropped his dodgeball, then launched himself towards said team mate, interjecting himself between the two munitions and the girl. However, instead of getting out as a result of being hit, Niko stopped the momentum of the two dodgeballs as they hit his body by the time he had stopped moving, thus meeting the criteria for "catching" the dodgeballs. Already, the opposing team was nearly finished, and his team was still mostly in play.
However, after Niko's fantastic action, one of his teammates picked up the dodgeball which he had dropped and lobbed it over to the enemy team, where one of their members promptly caught it. The enemy team then launched a simultaneous assault on Niko's team once again, leaving Niko barely any time to react as they threw balls at the teammates who were furthest from him. Niko was happy to see that one of his teammates was competent enough to catch one of the dodgeballs, however he was promptly hit by a second dodgeball and was forced to leave the play area. There are only a few left...hopefully we can take them out before losing too many more members. Niko thought this as he condensed the two dodgeballs which he held, however, as he threw one of the dodgeballs, he noted that the opposing team member was able to anticipate the flight path of the dodgeball and, with a desperate leap, escaped from being hit. Niko mentally applauded this opposing team member with a growing expression of glee as he threw the other dodgeball at the person, who was now resting on the ground. The person, a girl with reddish-brown hair, arched her back and raised her body with her arms and legs at the perfect opportunity, barely escaping the flight path of the ball once again. She then launched herself upwards by pressing on her hands, finally resting in an upright, standing position.
The game continued on for a few more minutes, mostly with Niko's team members getting hit by the red-haired girl and Niko being unable to find any more munitions due to his rather lacking team members using the dodgeballs inadequately at every opportunity. Niko nearly got hit by the red-haired girl on two opportunities, however his keen senses gave him plenty of time for his reflexes to kick in once he heard the whistle of the ball heading towards himself. Eventually, the game whittled down to just him and two other of his team members against the red-haired girl and Natsume. The opposing team had all of the dodgeballs, thus Niko and his other two companions were behind the half-way point of their own side of the room, awaiting for the opponents to attempt an assault.