Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

In all fairness, not to be sexist or racist, I completely denied her kiss like Neo dodged the fucking bullets because one, I wasn't expecting it at all and two, I didn't know her that well to reciprocate her advances, and three, we were in the middle of a fucking fight, unless she was already in our fucking circle, I'd assume that everything was an attack or a setup to hit me clean on the face.

But yeah, the look of regret, hate, and disappointment across her face looked so fucking genuine, it turned to complete rage once more when she realized I declined her advances.

And this time, her release bumped up as I felt more pressure coming from her, and even though it was only a fraction of an increase, I always knew that it was almost always the negative emotions that would add fuel to the fire.

"I JUST WANTED TO KISS YOU!"

"You did!"

"AND YOU DENIED ME!"

"I did!"

"W-WHY?!"

"I have a choice in the matter too, don't I?"

"STILL! DON'T YOU FIND ME ATTRACTIVE?!"

"Sure!"

"THEN WHY?!"

"There's a time and a place Williams! There's a time and a—"

"NIA!"

"Huh?"

"THE NAME'S NIA!"

"Sure, there's a time and a place, Nia! Read the fucking room!"

"I-I CAN'T HELP IT ALRIGHT?! I THOUGHT I'M HAVING HORMONE IMBALANCES BUT IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU?! I HAD TO DO IT!"

"Again! There's a time and a place!"

"WHEN?!"

"NOT NOW!"

All of a sudden, I assumed my draw stance when we were an arm's length apart—and this time, she wasn't able to shake off the pressure I was exuding as she really thought my blade magically appeared in my hands and was about to cut her down.

However, even if she increased our distance from jumping back, the moment I drew my blade and slashed her, she still fell flat on her face as she thought I cut her body in half and this time, she took more time to recover while I simply waited in the same position we were in.

It took maybe 15 minutes before she woke up, and once again, the first thing she touched was her midriff which she thought she was disemboweled thrice over. She then looked around the gym and saw me casually waiting for her to wake up—and it was only when I proved I wasn't a threat anymore by waving at her did she slowly made her way towards me.

"How… I… I'm sure—"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"C minus. Schedule an appointment with Marisha Payan, Kaley's mom. Don't think about the score too much, you'll improve over time."

"W-What am I— we… improving on exactly?"

"That's a good question."

"What?"

"My goal is to make all of you stronger—physically and mentally, though what you caught a glimpse of in our little session was the latter. From my experience, the best way to go about it is actually how we also improve physically and it was to have more experience with it in a very safe space.

That's about how much I could tell you right now but one tip I could give you is for you to be very, very, very~~~ honest with your feelings and intentions."

"T-Then what?"

"Be like that every second of your life and you might discover something in yourself you didn't know existed. I really shouldn't say more, thanks for your time, Nia."

"A-Alright… do I just—"

I chuckled, "Yeah, you can just leave by the door. I'll call the next one after you and you could schedule an appointment now or later. You have the rest of the day off."

"Oh! T-Thank you, then! I-I'll be going…"

"See ya… A favor, don't tell anyone about what we did here, alright?"

"O-Of course, sir… Can I ask a small favor too?"

"Shoot."

At that point, Nia opted for a hug that definitely lasted more than it should—and even if she was being real honest about what she wanted to do right now, I couldn't just reciprocate at the moment because again, there's a time and a place for that and I had more students to get through.

So yeah, after a few more minutes, Ruben's head peeked in my gym door and he quickly came in with his whole body once I waved him over. He was almost in the same getup as Nia though he had a plaid shirt on instead of the full set.

"G-Good morning, sir."

"'Sup?"

"I'm good, sir. You?"

"Same, same…"

"That's good…"

"You're really okay from what I did to you all yesterday?"

"I mean— It's training, sir. Isn't it? The last one's hella scary but it's all for a purpose, right?"

"Heh, you can say that."

"I-It is, right?"

"Sure. It's more of a test than anything but it could also be considered training. You don't just run 100 kilometers for training, right?"

"I guess that's true, sir. Umm… I-Is this what we're doing today?"

"Talking? A bit of it, yeah."

"I see…"

"Tell me, is there anything else you'd like to improve on? You see everyone's different, the last bit of Hell Week might not be for all of you but if we don't do what I did, we'll never know so… I already have a plan for each of you but what do YOU think you should work on more?"

Ruben started to scratch the back of his head, "Hmm… if you put it that way, sir… I think I have a lot to work on everything but… I think I'm not as agile as everyone else? I don't wanna assume but I think I'm a tad stronger than my group but speed's been something that I think is holding me back.

I could maybe lose a bit of weight but with the delicious and almost unlimited food served every day I… I think I might have put on a few more pounds… Ahaha…"

I chuckled, "That's kind of spot-on, I'm gonna be honest, but you know what I think?"