In the dazed world that was Alex's mind, he looked over at the clock in disbelief.

Not at the fact that he lost but at the fact that there was just two seconds left. He was two seconds away from at least getting a draw with Fu Hua, though he quickly got over that fact cause if anything, he could at least say that he nearly stood his ground against Fu Hua.

After being pinned down for a bit longer, Fu Hua got off him and helped Alex up as the boy stood back up albeit after stumbling a bit.

"Don't overexert yourself." Reassured Fu Hua as Alex nodded.

"Y-Yeah I know." He said.

"I gotta say, you impressed me." Said Fu Hua.

"I-I don't really see how. If anything, you were in control of the fight the entire time. Any offense I attempted you easily snuffed it out." Said Alex.

"I'm not talking about the actual fighting. I'm referring to your endurance. Previous battles I've had here always ended in less than one minute. Longest I've had was twenty-five seconds. They always tried to strike first and would be down in one punch. You however somehow managed to get out after taking a punch head on." She said.

"Yeah yeah I know. Look can we just go back already? I can barely stand." He said.

Fu Hua nodded as she held onto Alex's hand and walked back to the school as she guided him along.

Eventually after a bit they entered the school as Fu Hua had lead Alex into the medical room and after a bit of waiting, Alex was laid down on one of the beds with an ice pack on his face where Fu Hua had punched him earlier.

"I appreciate your time Alex. I wish you a good recovery." Said Fu Hua as she walked out of the room.

Knowing that he'd be here for a while, Alex took the opportunity to close his eyes and take a small nap.

Hours had passed before Alex began to slowly stir awake.

As he opened his eyes, he saw that he was still indeed in the room but now when we looked up, he was greeted by two breasts blocking the view of the ceiling.

"Wow. Didn't expect these to be the first things you'd look at. Puberty sure does hit fast huh?" Jokingly said a voice which Alex immediately knew was Himeko.

"Kinda hard not to when they're the only thing in my line of vision." He said with annoyance. "What're you doing here?"

"I came to check up on you after Fu Hua told me that you two had a sparring match. You were sound asleep though so I figured I'd wait for you to awaken. You should be grateful that I'm letting you rest of my lap. Lots of guys would kill to be in your position." Said Himeko as Alex frowned.

"I didn't ask for this at all." He said.

"Anyways, I can see that she got ya good. Even with the ice pack your cheek's turned purple." Said Himeko.

"Yeah I know. She hits like a large semi truck." Said Alex.

"Well at least your mostly alright. Fu Hua even told me that you lasted almost five minutes against her."

"Yeah I know. I was two seconds short."

"Wow. That certainly is an accomplishment. You impressed her today so nice going kid. You even got a couple of our students here buzzing all about you. Just try not to let the popularity get to your head okay kiddo?" Said Himeko in a smug tone as she walked out as Alex simply looked at her before looking back up and sighing.

'Just what have I gotten myself into?' He thought to himself.

[TimeSkip: Three Weeks Later]

As the weeks went by, things began to slowly feel familiar for Alex as he got adjusted to living at the St. Freya Dorms.

In the weeks that passed, Bronya had eventually gotten her full physiological examination and the results said that energy that had been emitted from the Selene's power drives may have interfered with her bio-chip.

Once that was determined, they immediately started repairs on Bronya.

Aside from that, the annual Valkyrie Examination was about to start as Alex began to notice day by day the students all become a bit more serious and dedicated as the date slowly drew closer.

Whenever he walked along the halls, Alex would notice the classes becoming increasingly more tough and stressful as well as the combat area he and Fu Hua had used to spar was now being used regularly for daily combat training which also grew in intensity.

Though he definitely was out of the loop due to not being a Valkyrie himself, he did at least understand that this was no joke.

He unfortunately found out the hard away as in the morning when he was leaving to head to the school, he had been ran into and ran over by Kiana who was already running late as she was juggling her books to prevent them from falling.

After that Alex eventually recovered and was currently spending his time at the school's library just reading a random book he had pulled from the shelf all while trying his best to ignore a few stares from other valkyries walking past him.

Eventually he got a tap on his shoulder and looked to the side to see it was Himeko.

"Anything you need Ms. Himeko?" Asked Alex.

"You call can drop the ms kid. You aren't a student here after all." Said Himeko.

"Anything you want from me?" Asked Alex.

"Yeah. The health department told me that Bronya is almost fully recovered. I'd appreciate it if you could visit her tomorrow and have her discharged. That way it'll give her enough time to attend the exams the day after." Said Himeko.

"Hmm. Sure I don't mind but why are you asking me? Can't you go do it yourself?" Asked Alex.

"I have a booze part-I-I mean, I'm a very busy woman." Said Himeko changing her phrase mid sentence.

Alex looked at her for a moment with a sour expression, clearly not believing her excuse before sighing.

"Fine. I'll go pick her up tomorrow." He said.

"Excellent! Thanks." Said Himeko before leaving.

After that Alex went back to reading for the remainder of the school day until school had ended as he started to leave as the sun was now setting on the horizon.

As he was heading back to the dorms, Alex's eyes came across someone who was walking on the other side of the path heading towards the school.

The girl had honey blonde hair that went to about the back of her neck with the front being slightly longer and reddish pink eyes with her left eye being covered by her hair.

She wore a maid outfit with pink accents and a frilly headband with roses and horns on each side as the maid outfit itself also had roses scattered on it.

Lastly, she wore black laced gloves which also had roses on them, long dark leggings, and heels.

When Alex caught a glimpse of that girl, he was a little caught off guard by who it was.

'Huh. Kinda odd to see a maid here.' Thought Alex though he immediately shrugged it off.

After all she clearly had no business with him.

Eventually after a lengthy walk, Alex had made it back to the dorm room.

Nothing really interesting happened that night as everyone eventually arrived home and after eating dinner together that was prepared by Mei, they all bid each other a good night and headed to their respective rooms.

Though Bronya currently wasn't at the dormitory, Alex still opted to sleep on the floor as he felt like it would've been rude of him to sleep on her bed.

That and he was admittedly a little embarrassed to sleep on a girl's bed.

After Alex had finished laying out his blankets and placing down his pillow, he was about to lay down until he decided to enjoy the scenery outside for a bit as he looked out the window and saw the moon shining in the sky, accompanied by the millions of stars.

As he watched the outdoors, Alex could've sworn that he saw someone out of the corner of his eye leave the dormitory.

He was a little confused by this as he looked at the alarm clock next to Bronya's bed which read, "12:02 A.M".

Alex initially had wanted to write this off as him just seeing things that weren't there, but he still felt compelled to do a double take just to make sure.

When he looked outside again, this time more clearly, there was indeed someone walking away from the dormitory at this time of night.

To only make matters even more confusing, it was the person itself who Alex saw that made him even more perplexed.

"Why the hell is that damn snowflake of all people out this late?"

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Chapter 9: Complete