Chapter 2: Defiant

As he had finished his meal late, everyone had seemingly dispersed from the hall. Nobody else had waited to tell him where to find his room, which did not surprise him, but it hardly bothered him. Slightly curious of whom his roommate would be he felt a slight sorrow for them, but only slight. It was well known that roommates were also training partners, and each day held extensive amount of training with the other.

Exiting the hall, he remembered spotting a map further down the corridor. In a few seconds he had reached it and began examining it. Noticing the activate button, Heichien pressed it and the map slowly brightened to life. Opening his electric notepad once again he found room 637 was where his room located. Turning to the map again, he opened a panel and typed in: "Room 637". A small line appeared following a path from where he was to his room. Memorising it he shutoff the map and lazily began his walk.

Without a trace of emotion Heichien reached the place he would be calling home for the next two years. Not needing to knock, he put his hand to the scanner of the door. A small beam of light examined his hand and flashed green. The doors opened to reveal his room. Walking in and turning the light on, it followed by a short squeal and a twirl. Turning to face the direction the noise had come from, he saw a girl of around his age in bed with the blankets wrapped around her.

"Don't you ever knock?! I was getting changed, anyway who are you?" Slowly pulling the covers away from her face, the girl felt a deep pang of surprise when she saw who her roommate would be.

At the same moment, Heichien realized that Julia, the daughter of the master of the academy would be his roommate for the next two years. Ignoring Julia he walked over to his bed where the rest of his belongings had been placed. Beginning to unpack everything, which wasn't much, Heichien quietly ignored the girl behind him.

"Can you leave while I get changed?" Julia asked coldly.

"I won't turn around, just get dressed there, and hurry up I'm nearly finished unpacking." Heichien replied.

"I don't trust you, you'll look I know you will." Julia spoke to the back of Heichien's head, for he was still facing the direction of his bed.

"Hurry up and get changed. I'll give you three minutes and if you're not changed do it while I'm sleeping" Heichiens expression remained passive as he spoke, however he seemed to sound bored but somewhat serious at the same time. Bounding out of her bed, Julia quickly grabbed her sleeping clothes and pulled them on. She swiftly turned her eyes back to Heichien, sure the deviant had looked.

"Finished yet? I am getting rather bored." Heichien remained facing his bed, awaiting Julia's reply, even though he knew she had finished.

"Ok I'm finished. You can turn around now."

"Good", was all that Heichien had to say. Turning around to drop the now empty bags on the floor, Julia inwardly gasped. All she had heard about Heichien was that he was a loner, he never made friends and never cared for anybody, it was even rumoured he didn't have emotion, but she had not known of how stunning to the eye he was. Of course all of what she knew had been picked up from her father, so that was not unexpected. Oblivious to Julia's thoughts Heichien pulled out his gun and sword, and then turned to the girl.

"If you ever even touch one of these without my permission then I will kill you. I will leave them here but I will know if you have laid a finger on them. Do not forget." He spoke as he always did, adding no emotion to his voice, for he never needed to, for he seldom spoke to people.

"Whah?! Is that loaded? You brought a sword and gun in here? Don't you know you're not allowed your own personal weapons in the academy? I should report you!" Julia yelled. Luckily for the other people trying to sleep, each room was sound proofed.

"Fine, report me, it does not matter. They know of my weapons and I was allowed them." As he spoke Heichien turned to his bed and began to set what settings he desired. Preferring to sleep weightless, he entered the command for this setting.

"But... But... Why are you allowed this stuff? How do I know your not lying?" Julia intently stared at the back of Heichien's head until he suddenly turned around, staring her in the eye.

"I never lie, ever. If I wish to not tell you something, or anybody, I will say nothing. Learn this quickly, I find talking unnecessary, boring. Now, I am going to sleep in peace." Turning away from Julia, Heichien began to strip to his boxers. Turning once again to Julia nodded a brief goodnight and hid his pistol out of sight. With the sheathed sword in hand, he jumped above his bed as the anti-gravity field kicked in. He immediately began to feel like he was falling, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Waking immediately and without hint of having slept, Heichien sat up and turned off the anti-gravity field. After being slowly lowered to the bed, he quickly got up, and searched for the cleaner room. After finding it, he removed his boxers, opened the door and stepped in, with a snap the door shut behind him. As he closed his eyes and raised his arms, water mixed soap that helped keep skin at its best, sprayed his body at seemingly impossible pressure. In under a minute his body was completely clean, and the machine began to now work on his hair. Spider-like tendrils sank down and began to massage his hair and scalp. The tendrils soon released a strong shampoo and then with a blast of water his hair was completely soap free. A conditioner then was rubbed into hair while the massage continued. In just two minutes Heichien was out looking like he had just been to a hair salon. Stepping into the dryer, a wave of intense heat washed over him and he was dry in a second. This done, Heichien went over to his bed and pulled out his clothes.

When dressed he slid his pistol down the back of his pants once again and positioned his sword through the gap of his belt, so that it hung at the left side of his hips, the handle easily accessible to him. Leaving the room and finding himself to be the first student awake, he silently began moving onwards to the dinner hall where his breakfast presumedly awaited him. Retrieving his notepad and opening it, he began to allow his subconscious to guide him, as Heichien began to study his daily timetable. Examining the time he discovered it was 0600 hours and class began at 0900 hours. Interested to see what his first class would be he checked, "Projectile Weapons". Immediately he knew his first class would be an hour of boredom, for he was certain the teacher would know less then he did.

Finding himself at the Entrance of the Hall, he walked in to find himself alone, like he had hoped and knew would happen. Walking over to where the breakfast had been laid out he grabbed his bowl and filled it with the nutrient filled cereal the Academy supplied for its students. Moving over to the table he was sitting at on the previous night, his meal was quickly finished. Leaving the bowl where he had eaten to show he had been there, he was now quite certain it would become his table and his alone.

Wandering the academy, he finally came across an empty room, suitable for his intended purposes. Walking in into the approximate middle and sitting down cross-legged, he laid the sword on his lap, across his legs, and pulled out his notepad once again. As he looked at the notepad he decided he would have to install an AI into it to follow his thought command to speed things up, for he was sure he would be using it more and more as time progressed. Setting the alarm for 0845 hours, he pocketed it and closed his eyes; he was in a deep and unbreakable meditation where he could clear his mind of thoughts completely or think things light-years a second, literally. At the moment however, his mind was quite empty. As the alarm was about to go off Heichien suddenly jerked awake, an image of Julia had passed through his mind. Looking behind him he saw her staring at him from the doorway. Noticing his realisation that she had been seen she quickly left to go elsewhere.

"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to your first class of this year at CaT! I am sure you are all eager to learn in this class, but you must remember that Projectile Weapons will be one of the hardest classes you will have this term, and being the master on the subject I know all about it! We will start of by going around the room, presenting your name, where you come from and anything more you wish to share, for there are a number of new students here! Now who will begin?"

Staring around the class waiting for a raised hand, the Master of Projectiles, P.G Thomason, impatiently stood. Being a short man of stocky statue, he could sometimes be quite intimidating, however the absence of hair had occasionally raised a flock of laughter, for baldness was rather uncommon in the current decade.

A hand suddenly rose in the back and a boy said, "Mr Thomson, Hi, umm my names Ben and this is my first year at CaT. I was training on mars until recently. They moved me because they thought my training there was limited..."

Mr Thomson exclaimed "Very good Ben! Is there anybody else?"

After all the newcomers hands had been raised, the Master of Projectiles looked onto his electronic role and noted one new person had not spoken yet.

"Ah, Heichien is it; it seems you haven't said anything, how about a word or two?"

Looking expectantly onto the boy, all he saw was a cold, boring gaze back and one word. "No".

Slightly startled by this, he cleared his throat and moved on, making sure he would keep an eye on this young fellow who seemed to think he was far above everybody else.

"Well ladies and gentlemen this term we are focusing on the weapons used by today's best combatants, more specifically their pistols! Now who can tell me what the current latest pistol issue is! I will be rather disappointed if nobody can guess, for it was developed a month ago and was stated the best pistol ever made of this age! Anybody?" Looking rather disappointed, his face turned to glee as a hand was raised. Everybody looked to whose hand it was and were startled to see the stunning brunette beauty in the back row.

"Sir, I think I know it. Oh sorry I am Julia by the way. Is it the Rexan Model 8.0 Pistol?" Sounding rather uncertain, she looked at her teacher hoping for praise. "Very good Julia that is correct! You seem to be a very promising student, keep up the good work! Now where was I... ?" Just as he was about to begin, Heichien stood up.

"That answer is incorrect Phil." Everyone gasped as Heichien had used their teachers first name to communicate with, a forbidden rule of the school. Turning red, the teacher glared at Heichien, but soon calmed down.

"Oh... Heichien is it? You think you know more on this subject then me? You think you should be teaching this subject do you?" Staring hard at the boy, Mr Thomson attempted to outface the boy, to make him sit down and apologize for his mistake, but he met little compliance.

"I do in fact know more on this subject then you Phil. If you do not know the best pistol Combatants use then I am guessing you are not of high enough rank to know, quite pitiful really." Heichien's emotionless voice echoed across the room and the students stared dumbfounded at what this boy was saying. They looked to Mr Thomson to see his reaction, and found him to be a rather dark shade of red.

"Well Heichien! Why don't you tell me and the class what the best pistol is then if you know it all!"

"Very Well." Heichien flatly stated.

Stepping down to the front where Mr Thomson was positioned, he began talking through the basic term ology of the Rexan 8.0. "The Rexan uses lead bullets with a forty bullet clip, and it can fire five-hundred bullets a minute with perfect accuracy if in the correct hands, including the reload. It is accurate to two kilometres in the hands of a competent marksman, and has a calibre of .50c. Being able to pierce an inch of steel and still be powerful enough to go through an unarmoured target of human form, it makes it a formidable weapon even against lightly armoured targets. With its feather light trigger and no safety, the Rexan 8.0 is very dangerous to hold while loaded. It weighs 0.876 kilograms with no ammunition and has a barrel of 10 inches, while in total being 14.9 inches long. Have I missed anything?"