“Alright students!” Zari yells into her megaphone. “Today you will all be practicing to use your new equipment!”

 

All of the students of class one were in the gym wearing their costumes and gear.

 

“I want you to showcase what your stuff can do one at a time, but we aren’t going to do this here.”

 

“...Why not?” Violet questions.

 

“Now that you guys have trained your bodies I want you to focus more on honing your powers, but this gym can’t cater to all of your different abilities as well as I would like. So, follow me!”

 

Zari walks out of the room as the students follow her.

 

They walk to another building that has a door that Zari has to open with a special cardkey.

 

“Welcome to the VRTR, which stands for the virtual reality training room. Here I will be able to set up individual tests for your powers. You will go in one at a time and the rest of us will watch through this window. Sounds good?”

 

All of the students nod except for one of them.

 

“What about me? I don’t have any equipment yet.” Fang asks Zari.

 

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to train today. You can just sit back with me and watch the others train for the day.

 

Fang nods with a smile.

 

“We will start out with Ash!”

 

“Alright!” Ash responds as he gets up from the bleachers.

 

Ash’s powers were really good at a closer range before, but he had less control of his flames the further they went, so these gauntlets should hopefully help with this issue.

 

“Okay! Let’s go!” Ash yells enthusiastically.

 

Zari sets up a specific test for Ash and turns on the program.

 

Ash is suddenly surrounded by a ton of targets moving in every direction all around the room.

 

“Hit as many targets as you can within the time limit! You have three minutes…starting now!”

 

“Got it!” Ash says as he starts his test.

 

He charges up a fireball and launches it towards a target that is moving from left to right. He whiffs the attack completely.

 

“Fire to where they are going to be instead of where they are!” Zari lectures.

 

“I know!” Ash yells back as he focuses again.

 

He shoots another fireball and misses. He tries again with the same result.

 

“Ash has one minute left on the timer without a single point yet!”

 

“That’s not helping!” He yells as he tries again.

 

He focuses, charges up another fireball, aims, and fires…

 

…and he finally hit a target.

 

“Woohoo! I finally got one!”

 

*BUZZ*

 

“Ash! Your training is over! You may now leave the training room!”

 

Ash heads towards the others with a cocky look on his face.

 

“I got a point!” He says as he snaps his fingers towards Zari.

 

“Yes you did. I don’t know why you are celebrating though. That was a terrible performance!”

 

“...Wait…what is the average for that test?”

 

“17.”

 

“...Oh…”

 

Ash, now dejected, sits down on one of the seats in the control room with the others.

 

“Hey! Chin up kid! Practice makes progress! Keep training and you are bound to get more points next time!”

 

“...Yeah…Thanks…”

 

“Welcome!” Zari says as she gets the next test prepared. “Candi is up next!”

 

“Yay!” Candi shouts as she runs into the training room.

 

“Alright Candi! Your test is to use your super speed to take out as many bad guys as possible! Got it!”

 

Candi nods, downs a vial of sugar from her belt, and gets into a runner’s starting position.

 

Zari presses the button and starts the test.

 

“You’ve got three minutes!”

 

A bunch of random holograms of people suddenly appear. Some of them looked like stereotypical bank robbers while some were dressed more casually to represent innocent civilians.

 

Candi starts running and starts annihilating the holograms with an onslaught of kicks.

 

*Buzz*

 

“Whew!” Candi says as she wiped sweat from her brow. “How did I do?”

 

She went back into the control room to come face to face with Zari.

 

“...So…the good news is you took out every single bad guy in the simulation…”

 

“Yay!”

 

“...But the bad news…is that you also took out every single civilian in the simulation as well…”

 

“...No…”

 

“Each robber was worth three points. There were 40 in total so that earns you 120 points, but each civilian subtracts five points. There were 25 civilians, so you lost 125 points. So, your total number of points is…negative 5…”

 

“...Well…technically none of those were real people…so I didn’t actually do anything wrong…”

 

“Don’t get philosophical on me Candi. Just take the L and do better next time.”

 

Candi sighs, but shakes her head and quickly regains her smile.

 

“Okay! You’re right! I’ll just do better next time!”

 

Zari nods and sets up the control panel for the next student.

 

“Maka! You’re up!”

 

“Hell yeah!” She says as she runs into the training room. “I can’t wait to beat up some thugs!”

 

Zari presses the start button.

 

“There is a water tower that is about to collapse surrounded by civilians! You have three minutes!”

 

“...Wait…no bad guys…”

 

“Nope! Good luck!”

 

“Fuck!” Maka shouts as she realizes that she can’t just muscle her way past this exercise.

 

The water tower begins to buckle and break.

 

Maka uses her powers to try to lift the water tower back up, but all she actually does is break the top of the water tower and a small stream of water starts to pour onto her and the ground around her.

 

“Shit!”

 

She uses her powers again to push all of the water to the other side of the tower.

 

The water tower starts to lean the other way.

 

Maka smirks at her seemingly successful solution…

 

…Until the water tower collapses backwards.

 

A wave of water hits the wall and starts to flow towards Maka and the civilians.

 

As the water approaches, Maka uses her powers to lift the water again.

 

This works, at least for a short time. All of the water is floating above her in a giant bubble.

 

“...Can’t…hold it…for much longer…” Maka strains herself to say.

 

When she couldn’t hold it anymore the water fell onto her and the civilians.

 

Zari presses a button and the simulation ends.

 

Maka walks into the control room.

 

“...So…did I pass?”

 

Zari just raises an eyebrow at Maka.

 

“...Okay…I failed…Got it…”

 

“Violet! You're next!”

 

Violet nods and walks into the training room.

 

Zari presses a button that drops a massive boulder onto Violet’s shoulders.

 

“Hold this for three minutes and you pass!”

 

“Ha! Easy!” Violet says as she holds the boulder with one arm.

 

A small dagger appears and plunges into the top of the boulder and Violet starts to buckle under the weight.

 

“...Wait…What…is going on?”

 

“I knew that one heavy object would be nothing for you, so I added a second object that you can’t touch!”

 

“...That…That’s not fair…That’s not what you said…”

 

“I just said hold this! I never said what ‘this’ was!”

 

Violet angrily grunts as she continues to struggle to hold the boulder.

 

When one minute and fifteen seconds remain on the clock Violet taps out. Zari presses the button again and the boulder disappears.

 

Violet leaves the training room while rubbing one of her arms with a defeated expression on her face.

 

“Love!”

 

“...Y…yes…”

 

“It’s your turn!”

 

Love gulps with fear and walks into the training room.

 

“Okay Love! The room will present you with your greatest fear! All you have to do is face that fear for three minutes!”

 

“...Wait…what? How do you know what my greatest fear is?”

 

“I don’t, but this machine can! With that being said, nothing can actually hurt you in there! Everything is just holograms!”

 

Zari readies the program and presses start.

 

Love was alone in the room for a moment, but at about the 2:45 mark two holograms appeared in the room.

 

…They were holograms of Love’s parents…”

 

The holograms process what they were looking at as disgusted looks appear on their faces.

 

“...Lev…is that you? What the hell are you doing?”

 

“...I…I just…um…”

 

“I thought we told you to stop it with this girly stuff a long time ago!”

 

“...but…but…”

 

“Now you listen to us young man!” The holograms start walking towards Love. “The first thing we're going to do is get you a haircut! No son of mine is going to look like a hippie!”

 

Love instantly grabs her hair.

 

“...No…I don’t want to…”

 

“Do not talk back to us! You will do what we say or else!”

 

“...Or…or else what?”

 

“THAT’S IT!” The hologram of Love’s father takes off his belt and walks towards Love.

 

Love falls onto the ground with tears streaming down her cheeks as she puts her arms up to defend herself.

 

“No! Not again!”

 

Zari presses the button again and shuts off the training room’s holograms.

 

Love is quickly surrounded by her classmates and Zari.

 

“...Love…What the hell was that?” Zari asks with a concerned look.

 

“...Those…were…my parents…”

 

“...Oh honey…I am so sorry…I didn’t know the machine was going to do that…I thought it was going to create a monster of something…”

 

Violet, Candi, Maka, and Ash quickly wrapped Love in a group hug.

 

“...It’s okay…That wasn’t real…They can’t hurt you here…” Violet says in a soothing voice.

 

“...It’s only us here Love…It’s just your friends…You’re safe here…” Candi reassures her friend.

 

“...I am so sorry, Love…” Ash says. “...I wish your parents cared about you as much as mine would…”

 

Everyone just sits there as Love continues to cry.

 

“Is that how your parents actually treat you?” Maka questions.

 

Love nods.

 

“THOSE BASTARDS! I AM GOING TO FIND THEM AND TEACH THEM A LESSON!” Maka yells as she cracks her knuckles.

 

“...Please don’t…” Love says to Maka between sobs.

 

Maka looks at Love with a confused expression before her anger leaves her body as she deflates.

 

“...Fine…”

 

Fang was standing off to the side, unsure of what to do with himself. He did know that a joke wouldn’t be appropriate right now so he just decided to stay silent.

 

As Love eventually stopped crying her friends let her out of the group hug that was surrounding her.

 

Violet helps her up to her feet and Love puts her arm around Violet’s shoulders.

 

“...I will make sure to devise a different test for you…” Zari tells Love. “...I think that’s enough for today…Class dismissed…”

 

Love and all of her friends went to her dorm.

 

They decided to have an impromptu game night to lift her spirits. They didn’t stop until they were sure that she was feeling better.

 

After a while Candi came up with the idea to have a sleepover which all of the friends quickly agreed to. None of them wanted to leave Love by herself after what had happened.

 

Some of them briefly leave to grab more pillows and blankets along with their toothbrushes and head back to Love’s room. Ash also contacted Takeru to stay with them as well which he quickly agreed to.

 

As they play games and chat they eventually get tired and fall asleep.

 

Love’s mind was no longer focusing on her parents and she was able to go to sleep.