From A To Z

The next morning, Adrian followed his new routine. He woke up, brushed his teeth, showered, got dressed, grabbed his things and headed out the door. He didn't see Delwyn as he was leaving, whether or not he had already left or was still inside, he wasn't going to bother him, they'd see each other later. Adrian left the dorm and went towards the main building, immediately going to the cafeteria for breakfast. Upon exiting the line, he saw Emily sitting down by herself.

Emily? I should sit with her. We only interacted a little bit yesterday, once I bumped into her and when the sporting events were over, but she seems pretty outgoing, it should be pretty easy to talk to her.

Upon contemplating it, Adrian walked up to her and sat down.

"Hey Emily."

"Adrian, hey. What's up? Oh, did you and Delwyn hand out at all after we split up."

"Yeah we did actually. We hung out in my room and played some games."

"Oh cool. Hey, what's your schedule like?"

"Huh, I haven't actually checked yet. Let's see, I have home room first obviously. Then math, science, english, economics and strategy, combat practice-"

Suddenly, Adrian was interrupted by the arrival of another individual.

"Hey guys, what's up."

"Delwyn, hey. We were just talking about our schedules."

"Oh yea, I was a bit confused on mine, do either of you know what this one's about."

Delwyn showed the two his phone , pointing at a certain class that said "Z-Cell System Refinement". Adrian looking at his own phone saw that it was just after his combat practice class.

"Huh? I have no clue. Unlike you two I don't know anybody in the military. I mean, I know Z-Cells are what zombies are made out of but I don't know what that could be referring to."

"Me neither to be honest. Akihito never said anything about that."

"Same, I've never heard of something like this, not even from my mom."

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The bell suddenly rang. Everyone stood up after a second and began to leave.

"Ok, see you boys later."

"See you."

After Delwyn, Adrian also bid the two goodbye and headed to his homeroom class. The school's classes lasted an hour each, excluding homeroom. After passing through his first four basic classes, he made it to combat practice. Adrian's in the outside class, so he's taught by Akihito.

Combat practice next. This must be the AZ Academy's gym equivalent. I already know my male teacher is Akihito, but who's the female one? It says, Solfrid Skyet? That's definitely an interesting name. I wonder where she's from, I know there are other countries in the world but due to us being underground, we don't really communicate with them much. Well, much is a pretty weak word to use, as far as I know we don't talk to them at all.

Adrian makes it around to the back of the building to the field. A note on his schedule says to immediately report to the changing room and get changed, so he does as instructed. Whole just finishing up getting ready, Akihito taps him on his shoulder and walks past him.

"Ok everyone. I'm Mr. Okabe, time for attendance."

Once Adrian is done getting ready, he heads back outside. He sees other students on the bleachers and decides to sit. He sees Johnathan and Ida. He contemplates between the two of them and ultimately picks to sit next to Johnathan.

"Haa."

As soon as Adrian sits down, Johnathan breaths the lightest sigh he's ever heard.

Dude it can't be that bad.

Once the instructors saw that everyone was present, they walked in front of the students. Adrian could only assume the woman next to Akihito was Ms. Skyet. She had long white hair and eyes of an unknown color due to Adrian being so far away, but he was pretty sure they were beautiful. She was elegant in how she walked, her skin was pale and fair. She had on the same uniform as Akihito as well as the students. Her muscles were notably but not overly toned, while having a rather slender body. Once the teachers stood in front of the students, Akihito began to speak.

"Hello class, you've already met us in your locker rooms but I'm Mr. Okabe and my associate here is Ms. Skyet. We'll divide you into groups of two, so stand up and make a single file line for us to give you a number." The students do as instructed. "One, two, one, two."

Akihito goes through each student one by one, sending students labeled 1 to the left and students labeled 2 to the right. Once he makes it to Adrian, his face cringes and contorts slightly.

"Hmph, 2"

Adrian was sent to the right. He assumed that meant he'd be instructed my Ms. Skyet. He assumed correctly. Once everyone was in their group. Akihito addressed the class as a whole once again. 

"Alright everyone, pick a partner and have a hand to hand sparring match with them. The rules are you can't attack them below the belt, the face, or the liver. Your goal is to subdue them, have them admit defeat or be unable to continue fighting. You will be monitored and critiqued by both Ms. Skyet and I. With that, you may begin."

Adrian was placed into a group with Johnathan. From there, nature took its course.

"Hey Johnathan, do you wanna be sparing partners?"

". . .Ugh, sure. But one thing, you can stop calling me Johnathan, only my family calls me that, John is fine."

"Ok, then, John it is."

The two take up their positions, Adrian performs a defensive stance, customary of the AZ Style he was taught by Akihito. Johnathan crouches and spreads his arms out, proceeding to lunge at Adrian, kicking up dirt and reshaping the immediate terrain with every powerful and heavy movement. Seeing he's going for a grappling maneuver, Adrian counters by sliding under him, grabbing his shoulders, and pushing up on him with his legs. Launching the large man took quite a bit of strength, but you wouldn't be attending this school if you couldn't perform at peak human condition, Adrian had always exercised and eaten right. He was also trained by Akihito. Getting up from the ground, John looked at Adrian with a slight sense of approval. John takes the form of an amateur boxer, runs up to Adrian, and goes for a punch to Adrian's chest. Adrian reads the punch and grabs his arm, adding more momentum while ducking, grabbing his chest, sweeping one of his legs, and uses the added momentum combined with John's lack of balance to slam him to the ground. A fundamental technique against zombies as it takes advantage of their naturally superior strength.

"Hah, my bad. I took you lightly and got laid out because of it. I'm used to going against people bigger than you so I underestimated you. I'll start trying now."

John smiles, Adrian's face visibly changes out of shock, then he follows his example, smiling at his opponent. Johnathan takes an audible breath and performs an explosive movement, jumping toward Adrian and going for another punch to the chest. Like before, Adrian dodges and grabs his arm, in response, Johnathan continues moving forward, holding his arm in front of him and bashing into Adrian's shoulder, sending him sliding across the ground. Johnathan follows him, reaching out his arm to grab Adrian's shirt. Adrian pushes on his arm, redirecting it upwards, grabbing onto it as well as his shoulder, uses John's body to lift himself off the ground and kicks him in the chest with both his legs, sending him spiraling backwards slightly. John catches himself on his hands, then his feet, and proceeds to push off the ground with both, coming after Adrian like a dog, catching him on his landing which made him vulnerable caused by his earlier attack. Johnathan tucks his head in and grabs Adrian by the waist, he then jumps into the air backwards, falling upside down, suplexing Adrian under his weight. Johnathan gets up, Adrian does not.

"Yo, you give up?"

"Haa. . .haa, yea I do, I can't go on anymore. Good match."

While on the ground, Adrian looked to his right and saw Skyet staring at him and John. All of a sudden, he heard a whistle blow.

"Alright everyone, that's enough hand to hand, now onto weapon practice. Pick up a wooden weapon from the barrels. We curated them to have whatever you might need. Same rules as before, only change is to win you have to land a single hit. Begin when you're ready."

Oh God there's more

Adrian walks up to the barrel and picks up a broadsword. The standard weapon for AZ soldiers. John picks up an axe. They both stand opposing each other, double handing their weapon. John attacks first, charging at Adrian and swinging his axe. Adrian jumps over the blade and pokes his sword at John's heart.

"Looks like I win." Adrian said with an arrogant smile.

"Let's go again."

The two readied themselves again, this time, Adrian attacked first, lunging forward, swinging at John's left side. John raises his axe to his right, keeping his left hand on the handle and moving his right behind the blade, and pushes his axe towards Adrian in an attempt to attack him mid lunge. Expecting this, Adrian pushed forward, not attacking John, instead, barely advancing past his axe and preemptively switching the side his sword is on, he gets behind John and swings his sword at John's left side, successfully striking him.

"Again."

The two ready themselves once more, Adrian makes the first move once again, charging directly at Johnathan, Adrian jumps above his head and points his sword downward, going for a stab to the head. John blocks the attack with the flat of his axe, Adrian uses the new ground to push himself back to the ground and stabs John.

"Agai-."

The whistle blew again, John became flushed with disappointment. Once again, Adrian noticed Skyet looking at the two of them.

"Ok everyone, great effort i'm seeing. Next is a bit of a unique exercise. Your new goal is to land a hit on the instructor of your group. Also, the off limit areas form before no longer apply, target anywhere with any kind of attack, you are allowed to use weapons."

Is he serious? I get they're strong but there's 1 of them and 13 of us on each side. Oh well.

All the students in Adrian's group focus on the mysterious Ms. Skyet, a few charged at a time targeting different points on her body. One came from behind to jump on her and restrain her, one went to grab her leg, another went to hit her in the side. She somehow ducked under the one behind her, allowed the student to grab her leg, caught and pushed back the student going for her side, then proceeded to launch the student holding onto her. The other students proceeded to attack her and some even came back until there was nobody willing to try. The only ones who hadn't tried anything were Adrian and John, due to their training, they were hesitant on attacking her as just by looking at her and seeing her in action, they couldn't identify any openings. 

"Would you like to wait for your friends to stand back up? You'd have a better chance that way."

Not anticipating hearing her voice, Adrian was a bit shocked when she did so, she hadn't said a word the entire class. Regardless, Adrian responded with confidence.

"Nah, I think the two of us will work.

The two made a plan, while Adrian was speaking, John ran at her and went to punch her in the face. She moved his arm out of the way effortlessly and went to punish him with a blow to the gut. Adrian proceeded to jump onto and off of John's back, getting him out of the way of his punishment and positioning himself above her attempting to grab her head and bring her to the ground. Fully upside down, Adrian grabbed her head and came to a full stop, she didn't move an inch and Adrian was stuck supporting himself. She jerked her head, launching Adrian off her. While she did that, John went for the grapple maneuver he used on Adrian in their first encounter. Skyet knocked him out of his attack with a kick to the chest, then an uppercut, sending him into the air. She then grabbed his leg and turned around, swinging John and hitting Adrian with him who was trying to sneak up on her for a surprise attack, sending them both tumbling away.

"Adrian . . .haa, what do we do now."

"Dude if you wanna keep fighting then be my guest. She just hit me with you. That's where I call it quits personally. Actually, how did she do that, that doesn't make sense."

"No clue, too tired to care. Haaaaah, This sucks."

"No need to beat yourself up over it, she has it covered. She's an instructor, we never stood a chance in the first place. No reason to be frustrated."

"You, hah, you wouldn't get it. Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"Alright then, if you say so."

Once every student had given up, Akihito blew the whistle.

"Alright everyone, great effort, we still have about half the class time left so let's go through it all one more time!"

I'm gonna die here.

After surviving gym class, Adrian gets dressed into his uniform and begins to go to his next class before stopping to say something.

"Hey John."

"Huh?"

"If we're in the same group, be my partner next time. I don't know anyone else here, well, besides Ida technically but still."

". . .Uh, sure, if you want. I don't really care."

Nice. 

When leaving the changing room, Adrian overheard a conversation being held on an adjacent wall, he recognized one of the voices as Akihito and continued listening.

"The students seem pretty capable, minor corrections here and there but for the most part they were pretty competent."

"I agree. To be honest, I quite enjoyed watching the fight between your son and his partner. Though the extents differ, I had to correct everyone in my group apart from them. They looked like they were in their own world and nothing else at the time mattered."

"Hm, interesting. I guess sometimes you just find someone you synergize with."

Adrian had felt like he heard enough. He checked his next class and continued walking.

Ok, next is Z-Cell System Refinement, whatever that means.