(11) Hello NWDA Island.

The landscape of Dragoon city got quickly replaced with an endless sea. Not interested in spending the rest of this journey looking at water, I look back at my phone. This time I was searching for a world map, which in retrospect is something that I should have done sooner. What I found was a cluster of landmasses and islands spread across the globe. There was a major continent that span through most of the globe, this continent could be separated into two other continents connected by two chokepoints - just like you could separate north-America and south-America - Then around the main landmass there were clusters of small islands, and other bigger islands.

Most of the world’s governments are what I would call “Free Cities”, independent cities, but all in unions and alliances with each other. For example, Dragoon city is on the south-west on the left major continent. It’s part of the “Lotheas Union” which comprises about 19 other free cities. To the north-east there is the “Zargesian Protectorate” and to the south-east the “Confederation of Independent Welkian Cities” or “CWIC” for short. Even with the existence of these governmental bodies, the cities themselves are mostly allowed to do whatever they want internally with some cities being owned by megacorporations, serving as their headquarters and places of manufactory, these are referred to as “Corporate Cities”, while I read this and just think: ‘Found the slave states’, apparently they are not as bad as they sound… Or so say the travel guides and forum posts from people living there, not that I would be surprised if they are required to say stuff like that to get better conditions… Yea, I’m not visiting anytime soon.

Government differs from cities to city based on the top industries. A council made up of representatives from major dueling academies and some elected positions governs dragoon City, for example. This results from the sheer quantity of dueling academies in the city and their major “export” being competent duelists, entertainment based on dueling, and tourism.

As I’m engrossed in my research, I hear someone calling me.

“E-Excuse me.” - A female voice stutters, then asks - “Might you be the natural Penta-Summoner the director mentioned?”

I look up to find a woman with red bobbed hair and dark brown eyes peeking above the privacy covers of my seat.

“Yes?” - I respond.

She relaxes, “Phew, good afternoon, sorry for my rudeness, but I just couldn’t believe it when the director revealed that we would have someone like you in the academy. My name is Kayu Takayama. I’ll be your deck building professor for this year.”

“I’m Yuumi Matsunaga, I’ll be in your care then.” I say with a polite smile.

“Oh, no need to be like that with me; I watched your duel with the robot after it happened and I must say it shocked me to see you defeat the bots’ spells so effortlessly!”

‘Sure, praise me more for having one spell negate on board after overextending.’

“It was just luck,” I reveal.

“There is no need to bring yourself down like that!” - She insisted - “I know you have skill!”

“If that’s what the professor thinks think…” I leave it there.

She giggles, “Well, I will see you later at the academy. Sorry for bothering you!”

“No problem,” I say, then look back down at my phone.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will arrive at NWDA Academy Island in 10 minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts, as we will be landing shortly.” Announces the capitan.

I don’t know how much time passed because I fell asleep while I was looking at prices. Thankfully, I somehow kept my phone in my hand even while asleep…

‘Some fine muscle memory.’

The reason I was searching for prices was to confirm the 1@ to 33 cents conversion I quickly did back when I was meeting the director. That conversion, by the way, turned out to be accurate with basically everything I’ve found so far. Actually, this lead me into another rabbit hole. I looked at a lot of Commerce websites during my price research, and all of them offered delivery by “Express tube”, with delivery times ranging from 15 minutes to an hour WORLDWIDE. This made me want to check out what “Express tube” delivery is.

Apparently it’s a worldwide network of vacuum maglev tubes that can move cargo canisters at speeds up to 10Km/s… Of course, that’s not the speed of the entire network just the top speed between cargo hubs, distribution to individual clients is provided by traditional pneumatic tubes like the ones you can find in hospitals or old banks, these clients are individual houses, businesses and public lockers. I do not know how this is cost efficient over traditional cargo ships, cargo planes and trucks, but yay for fast deliveries.

Looking out of the window, I can spot the academy. The dominant feature seems to be the main tower on the north of the academy island. A single wide path runs down the middle of the island, connecting the tower and the dock on the south. From the primary avenue emerge side streets that are surrounded by other buildings. The two other key features are the massive field to the west of the island and a race track on the east side. Of course, between these key structures, there are other buildings, but as the plane approaches the landing pads by the tower, I lose sight of them.

The Osprey changes to helicopter mode and slowly lowers onto the pad. The landing is calm and after another announcement from the captain; I stand up, grab my bag and a stand by the queue to leave the plane. I disembark with 10 other people - including the Deck building teacher - and use this time to clip the badge denoting a natural Penta-Summoner on my uniform, then stand by the helipad while the rest of the staff members walk away.

As the pad was emptying, I’m finally am confronted by an old woman with short white hair.

“Yuumi Matsunaga?” She asks in a grumbly voice.

“Yes.” I respond.

“Good afternoon Yuumi, my name is Hotaru Umeda but you will address me as Miss. Umeda, from now on, understood?” She orders.

“Er, Yes, Miss Umeda.” I stumble.

“Very well. Now, for some reason, the director tasked me with showing you around the island…” - She looks at the ground then mumbles - “Even though I’ll have to do it again when the other students get here, that bastard can’t seem to leave an old woman alone…” in a hurried, aggressive tone followed by her turning her back to me and walking away.

‘… Alrighty then. Rude, but I can understand being mad at having to repeat the same tour twice in a day.’

I follow her, and she starts the tour, stopping first by the entrance to the main tower.

“This is the central tower of the academy. Advanced classes take place here and it’s also the living quarters for the academies’ best!” - She emphasizes the last part. - “It’s also where the staff offices are located, including the Directors’; as a red rank, you will not be visiting it commonly unless you turn out to be subpar even compared to the other red rank trash.” She finishes her description, practically spitting venom.

‘Ok, I’m not sure she fully understands the meaning of the badge on my chest, but in the spirit of not being a dick to an overworked elderly lady, I’ll stay quiet.’

We then make our way down the primary avenue and arrive at a four-way intersection.

“Now this is a place where you will be frequently frequenting.” She points to the right at a tall white building five stories high. “This is the first main pavilion where classes will take place,” she then directs my attention to the left building that looks identical to the first one. “That is the second teaching pavilion. These two pavilions are where you will spend most of your time, other than the dorms. Past the pavilions are the buildings of various clubs and farther away there's the PE field and gymnasium down the right path and Turbo duel racing track to the left one.”

We keep walking until we reach another four-way split.

“This is the "Market square" as the students like to call it, you will find a variety of stores mostly specializing in dueling equipment here, but keep in mind, as a red rank, the only one you want to care about is the basic card shop, it's the first one to the right path, you can’t miss it.” Again, she completely underestimates the amount of resources I have access to.

We then pass by some other four way splits but she doesn’t bother explaining where they lead, but just based on the colors I have a hunch. They were some strange clusters of buildings painted in the various colors, so they’re probably the dorms for the other ranks.

After a long walk, we finally stop at another four-way split in the path, this time with two red painted buildings. They have strange designs, with cylindrical shapes and bulbous roofs.

“We have arrived at the red dorms.” Miss Umeda declares. “To the right is the female dorm, and to the left is the male one. Now follow me.” She says as we enter the female dorm.

The inside is set up like a motel lobby, the front desk is to the left, a raised platform which leads to an elevator to the front, and a corridor to the right, there's few people around at this time making the lobby seem empty. Miss Umeda then gives me a tour of the inside, showing me the canteen, laundry room and some other facilities. Unfortunately, the looks of the students that came out to see what was going on was all I could focus on. They seemed confused until they noticed something about me - probably the badge - and then they would quickly make themselves scarce. I didn’t like it one bit to be honest, sure it was better than them trying to mess with me, but fear was not my intention. I pondered if it would be better to just not wear the badge, but decided against it.

Miss Ameda then guided us to the elevator and pressed the third floor button. This was a five story building according to the floor numbers.

When we got off the elevator, she turned to me and asked.

“Now, do you have any questions?”

“Five, actually. First, is there a specific time I have to get up at or can I just wake up before classes?”

“They serve breakfast at the canteen at 7AM, other than that curfew is in effect from 10PM to 6:30 AM.”

“About package deliveries?”

“Small tube deliveries can be picked up at the locker by the front desk. For medium-sized tube deliveries, you’ll need to go to the central tower locker. Large ones and non-tube deliveries arrive by boat each week, and you’ll need to pick them up at the docks. Oh, the docks are just past the red dorms.”

‘No shit, I can smell the sea from here.’

“For delivery addresses, just look at the NWDA app knowledge base. Also, DC purchases can also be delivered by tube and the same rules apply, except large items are picked up at the main tower as well.”

“How do I spend DC then?”

“First, as a red rank, you have little, so use it sparingly.” - She warns - “But you can use it to purchase items from the stores in the commercial zone, or directly from the NWDA app.”

“Where do I find my sche…”

“In the NWDA app. Any more questions?” Miss Umeda interrupts me, annoyed.

‘Sheesh, talk about grumpy.’

“No, I don’t think so.” I had another question, but if she’s going to act like this, I’ll just leave her alone.

“Good, now let’s go meet your roommate.”

I follow her to a door numbered “36” near the end of the hallway.

*Knock*, *Knock* “Open the door, you have a new roommate!” She yells.

I can hear some ruffling on the other side. Then the door opens, revealing a tall-ish muscular girl with tanned skin, yellow eyes and green hair tied in a ponytail. She’s wearing pajamas.

“NEW ROOMATE!? You have to be kidding me Miss Umeda!? New students only arrive at seven PM. What gives!?”

“Some special case, I guess. Now I have to go prepare ANOTHER tour. Bye.” And she walks away, leaving me by the door.

My new roommate is staring at me…. and she just found the badge…. and her mouth just opened wide…. Shit…

“Pen… pen… penta…” she stutters.

“Hey are you going to let me in or am I going to sleep in the corridor?” I joke.

“NATURAL PENTA-SUMMONER!!!” she screams…. and then falls to the ground, seemingly having fainted.

…

…

…

‘… Great first impressions…’