Chiara is making the finishing touches to her weekly assignment for her "History of Popular Music" class. It's about the roots of music outside of the professional world, primarily music that would have been played in the beer halls, campfires, or in the streets of American or European cities. It's entirely out of Chiara's own expertise as she's been classically trained for most of her life, especially with all of her piano lessons growing up. It makes her wonder why she has to study popular music in her degree plan. Emi has always criticized her for being harsh on "normal" music. She can recall those times when she would be sitting in the bus with the orchestra or marching band kids back in high school for her various gigs and she would have to suffer through those annoying pop songs on the radio. "What good is all this to me?" Chiara wonders to herself as she finishes her historical essay and submits it on the class blackboard. She looks at the communications tab where the other students can chat with other classmates about the subject matter but so far, it's just the professor and two other classmates that had posted there from a week ago. Chiara moves on and closes the tab on her browser and closes her laptop after powering off.
She looks outside of the window of the library. She's a couple of students walking together, some couples and others with friends. The sun is starting to set and hopefully so will the heat of the day. She grabs her backpack and leaves the library table, not disturbing the others all lined up and doing their own studying without any awareness of the outside world. She heads for the elevator but it's closed due to maintenance. "Good grief." Chiara thinks to herself as she didn't want to use the stairs. "It's bad enough this campus has so many stairs. Stairs to my classrooms, stairs to my dorms, stairs to the Dean, and now stairs here. If I keep this up, I'll be as fit as Emi. It would have been nice to stand up to those old bullies when I'm finally strong." Chiara starts doing little pretend thrust punches in the air as she makes her way to the stairway.
As She makes her way down a narrow stairway from the third floor, Chiara spots something as she descends. It's a short blonde girl, wearing a loose t-shirt and pajama pants, sitting at the corner of the stairway. Her eyes are shut and her face is very pale. Sheets of paper with various mathematical problems, some completely scratched out are laid out on the floor all around her. Chiara recognizes the "corpse". It's Mai. She's on the edge of wanting to scream in terror but her voice, more shaky and nervous as she ever sounded calls out to her.
"M...Mai?"
"The life springs into the girl as she hears her named called. Her dark blue eyes flicker and look up to the red headed girl who woke her up. "Oh....Hey! It's Chiara!" She says pleasantly with a drowsy tone. "Man...what time is it?"
Chiara can feel her heart rate relax as her new friend was just napping in the stairway and not dead as she initially thought. "Oh Mai...it's already evening." She takes out here phone to check the time. "6:24 PM."
"Oh...shit...I must have knocked out here while I was studying.."
"Why were you studying in the stairway Mai? Isn't this a sketchy place to be studying?"
Nah. People come down these stairs all the time. And actually, you proved my point that studying here was a good idea. If I get drowsy and fall asleep here, someone like you would eventually wake me up. If I fall asleep at one of those desks in the upper floors, I would have slept there all night. Hikari would had called the police and assumed I went missing. Trust me...It happened before."
"But couldn't you study in your dorm room or something?"
"Well about that..." Mai chuckles as she rubs the back of her neck. "You see...I sort of lost my dorm key yesterday, so I've been relying on Hikari to keep the dorm open whenever she's there. Right now, she has class all day today so I couldn't go to my dorm even if I wanted to."
"Couldn't you tell one of the resident advisors you lost your key?"
"They'll charge me $5.00 just to unlock the dorm room. $25.00 to replace the key. As if this Uni wasn't robbing me enough as it is. I'm not going to ask Hikari either. She’ll get offended if I ask her for money. Besides, it's my fault that I lost my key. Not her."
Chiara looks down at the sorry state Mai looks at the moment. She looks like she had a rough night and doesn't seem to be well rested. "You need to take care of yourself Mai. You can't be losing sleep like this. It's not right that you have to sleep in the library."
"I know...I know...but.." Mai voice softens as she speaks. It's not a voice she's used to Mai speaking with. "I have a lot of course work Chiara. I had two mini exams this week alone. I got one more at the end of the week that I've been studying for. Hikari says I'm smart but that's not necessarily true. I just study hard."
"Maybe a bit too hard Mai..."
"Yeah..well I don't want to flunk out early. I already had classmates leaving after the first week. They couldn't handle it. Some of them were close to being good friends..."
"Mai..."
"But hey, that's just part of the program." Mai shrugs and smiles as she grabs her notes from the floor. Chiara kneels down to help her out. "My classmates are pretty stressed out about it too. They tell me the same thing that I'm going through. This is all pretty hardcore compared to high school. Back then, I could just autopilot my classwork if I felt like it."
"College shouldn't have to be this stressful. I just finished my first essay for my class. I hardly have to study for my classes."
"We may both go to the same Uni but we're in two totally different worlds Chiara." Mai finishes putting her notes in her backpack. "Thanks Chiara. You're a real sweet and kind soul in this cruel world."
"Oh...it's nothing Mai...I was just worried about you when I saw you here. We're more than just friends. We're squad mates too."
"Yep. We gotta look after each other, and not just in VR." Chiara helps Mai onto her feet "Thanks Chiara. Say, you wanna hit up the cafeteria? I could use some coffee right now."
"Sure. I'm not busy."
"Cool. There's something I want to show you. It's about the tournament."
The cafeteria is not as bustling as it usually is during lunch hour rush. There are rows of tables and booths on one side with various food stalls on the other. There's a couple of small fast food chain booths but unlike the cafeteria food, they charge money while the cafeteria food is included with the dorm fee, at least for 5 days. Chiara has a plate of chicken pattie sandwich and some ice tea. She's seated at one of the tables by herself as she waits for Mai to get her coffee. She sees her come with a large thermos.
"It's a good thing the coffee is free. I always come here early in the morning for refills and it keeps me up for most of the day. This is gonna get me through the night." Mai takes a seat and has a drink. She visibly starts to show some of her life spring back into her. "Ah...that's not bad for free coffee. You don't drink Chiara?"
"Uh...no."
"Oh well. You're missing out. So as I was saying. I've been reviewing all the contestants we might be going up against. I have to say, we probably have a pretty low chance at winning this. But I'm not going to discourage you."
"Is that so?"
"On the contrary, I want to give you a preview of what sort of antics we'll be getting into for the tournament. I am probably going to send this video link to the other girls, but since you're here with me, I'd like to watch it with you if that's alright."
Chiara nods her head. "Of course. What did you want to show me?"
Mai takes out her phone and rests it against the napkin holder on the table. She opens a modified YouTube app on her Android phone and searches for "Final Match between Raptor Squad and Flamingo Squad: Mil-Sim Summer Tournament".
"As the video plays, Chiara notices how quickly the video loads into the content." Wow...isn't there usually an Advert a the start of the video?"
"Hah...not with this app and phone." Mai says proudly. "I can show you if you have an Android phone. But that's for another time, let's watch this. It'll be a learning experience fo you."
"Welcome to the summer finals of Mil-Sim Story's Tournament! I'm your host: Gunny. Joining me here is my co-host and co-developer of Mil-Sim Story: Rookie"
"Thanks for having me Gunny. It's a honor to be here to commentate on this historical match for Mil-Sim Story. It's only been a month since we released the game to the public and reception has been better than we could ever expected."
"Your team must have pulled off a miracle to put out one of the best first person shooter experiences in recent history and now we are here at last to witness the conclusion of the first Mil-Sim Story tournament! It's been a wild turn of events seeing all these teams rise and fall over the past few weeks and now we are down to the very best of the best. Two teams of entirely different schools of operating combined arms warfare!
The stream cuts to a view of a team dressed in pastel blazers, pants, dressy shoes, skirts for the female players, with some wearing light armor vests over their suits, some with modified chest rigs fitted to be discrete under their blazers, but mostly with leather holsters and slings to hold their pistols, sub-machine guns and even a couple of rifles for some team members.
"Starting off with our last contenders is Flamingo Squad lead by Vince. Don't let their flashy style fool you. They have been relentless with their law enforcement style combat involving discrete explosives, hit and run, and ambushes especially in urban environments." As Gunny speaks, there is a montage of some of the squads exploits from previous matches where they are rigging up explosives to cars, shooting down opponents from helicopters and boats, to driving by combatants with a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa.
"I gotta say. I would had never expected such a fashionable team to make it the very end of this tournament, but it seems Flamingo Squad is one of those rare cases where they don't compromise on style over substance." Rookie commented.
"You're right on the money Rookie. As for our other contender for this finale, we have one of the more serious contenders of this tournament so far. One team that has proven time after time again what true coordination and standardization can do."
The stream transitions to another squad. This time, the squad had more modern equipment than Flamingo Squad, with M4A1s tricked out with various attachments, A couple of HK416s, FN SCAR 17, a Barret M82A1, and each member holstering some kind of tricked out Glock 19 Gen 3. Thee team is all dressed identically with skinny jeans, gray jackets, gray plate carriers, with some squad members equipped with bump helmets and others with a simple baseball cap. They have a resemblance to what modern undercover cops or "Gray man" would wear.
"Flamingo squad will be going head on against Raptor Squad! Lead by Seth's Tactical of YouTube fame. A once prominent airsoft competitor now leading a squad of professional gamers in Mil-Sim Story!"
"They are quite the contrast from Flamingo Squad, Gunny. I have to say, it's impressive to see how far Raptor squad was able to min-max their equipment to an extreme extent on some of the most basic platforms but were able to outclass all other squads they went up against." A montage of Raptor squad operating in close quarter battles, deploying from armored SUVs, to gunning down an entire room in mere seconds after breaching are shown as the commentators talk.
"The final match of this tournament will be hosted in this industrial docking yard. A fairly large map with all kinds of tactical approaches for both infantry and vehicles. Everything from long range combat to door to door close quarter combat will put both teams on the spotlight for only one team will come out victorious in this tournament and win the one million dollar prize!"
Both teams are spawned into the map, with half of Flamingo Squad approaching the docks by a speed boat, and two other members driving up to the docks in their sports car. Raptor squad spawns inside one of the dock's warehouses while some of the members drives through the chain fence of the dock from the opposite side. "Ladies and Gentlemen! Let the battle begin! Raptor Squad vs Flamingo Squad! Safeties off! Weapons Hot! GO GO GO !"
Chiara is amazed as she watches the match. It all goes by so quickly. Some of the highlights of the match includes a girl from Flamingo Squad taking out the sniper with the Barret using her M16A2's grenade launcher after landing on the docks, Raptor Squad using the armored SUV as mobile cover as they retreat to another warehouse. The two drivers from Flamingo Squad getting gun downed as they drive the towards the armored SUV but going out with a bang as they sacrifice themselves with an explosive rigged to the Ferrari and taking out the SUV. The end of the match has the remain members of both squads fight it out in close quarters combat. The fighting is fierce and intense with firefights taking place at a room's distance from one another in some cases. The final member of Flamingo squad is outnumbered 3 to 1 and makes his last stand behind a knocked down office desk. He fires his Uzi at the three raptor squad members carefully approaching is cover. He runs out of ammo after taking out one of the members of Raptor squad and quickly drops his Uzi to draw from appendix his 10mm Bren Ten, taking out the second remaining member of Raptor squad in mere seconds before being gunned down by the last member of Raptor Squad who drops him in two shots with his HK416 assault rifle, ending the match in that final showdown.
"It's Over! Raptor Squad wins the round at the last man! Congratulations to Raptor Squad! Mil-Sim Story's Summer Tournament winner!"
"See? Pretty cool huh Chiara?"
"That was intense Mai. Everyone was moving like they knew what they were doing. That match ended in just a few minutes"
"Yeah, and it seems like Raptor Squad is going to participate again the Fall Tournament, alongside a bunch of other teams that want to see them dethroned. However, this time it's going to be a bit different considering it's not just going to be single squads battling it out. The matches will be larger with platoon sizes this time around. I've played a few of the larger matches myself but causally of course.
"I see. So it's not going to be anything like our match against Longhorn?"
"Yeah, I'm talking about tanks, armored personal carriers, artillery, and even night time battles. Small arms won't be enough to win matches anymore."
"Hey Mai. I see Chiara finally found you!"
"Hikari?" Mai looks over her shoulder and sees Mai standing behind her wearing her nursing scrubs. "You got out early?"
"Yeah, for today at least. Oh and I got this for you." Hikari takes out a key from her pocket and places it on the table in front of Mai. "Try not to lose your key again Mai."
"Oh...where did you find it?" Mai says a little surprised as she pockets it into her trousers.
"They were in your sleeping shorts pocket. For some reason, your clothes ended up getting mixed up in my laundry." Hikari says unamused in her expression.
"Wha....oh...right... I didn't mean to...um...did any of my other clothes get mixed up too?"
Hikari sighs. "I think I'd rather talk about it...but you seriously keep your laundry separated."
"Aha.....sorry about that. I guess I got a little drowsy while I was putting my old clothes in the basket. Anyways, I'm gonna head back to my dorm now and sort all this out Chiara. It was nice having a chat with you."
Chiara smiles and nods but has some concern in her tone. "Mhm. I enjoyed our little chat. Oh and Mai...please do take care of yourself. I don't want to see you past out at the library again. You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Mai was sleeping in the library?" Hikari asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh...uh...yeah...I kind of did. But I didn't have my key to my dorm so I had to study and well...I was pretty exhausted and had nowhere to sleep."
"You're welcome to stop by my dorm if you ever get locked out again Mai."
"I appreciate it Chiara but I'm not going to lose my key again." She looks at Hikari. "I promise."
"I hope so. Come on Mai. It's getting late. Oh and Chiara...where's Emi?"
"She's still doing laps at the track field right now. We actually don't share a dorm room together unfortunately."
"Well if you do see her, tell her Mai and I said hi." Hikari pats Chiara on the shoulder as Mai gets up from the table. "Thanks for helping Mai out today. I do worry about her sometimes."
"Sometimes?" Mai interjects.
"I mean, who else is going to tutor me on those dumb math classes I have to take for my degree."
"Just work on all the textbook's problems, not just the one your assigned Hikari."
"Yeah but there's better things I'd rather do with my time. I'm a nurse, not a math or engineering major."
"You would not survive a week in any mechanical engineering class."
"I wouldn't torture myself like that Mai."
"Consider yourself lucky."
"My major isn’t any better Mai. I have a lot of memorization I have to do with my nursing program."
"Well I hope the best of luck to both of you." Chiara remarks.
"Thanks Chiara. I'm glad we got someone rooting for us." Hikari smiles as she speaks.
"Yeah, pray for us because we really need it. It would be a damn shame if either of us dropped out."
Mai and Hikari wave goodbye to Chiara as they all leave the cafeteria and head off to their separate ways. Chiara feels a light tingle in her heart and a small smile forms on her face. She had not only socialized with Mai and Hikari successfully but she also came to help Mai when she dozed off in the library. For the first time in her life, she feels like she's been useful and not a burden. "Emi would be proud" she thinks to herself.
At the same time, she's also intrigued by what Mai had shown to her at the cafeteria. She knows Armadillo Squad and Longhorn Squad are going up against some serious competition. Mai doesn't seem to have that much confidence in their team but at the very least, Chiara is hoping it might be something fun to try, even if they don't make it past the first elimination round. It seems like her second week of university is going better than expected.