Alice

Mike went down the steps tentatively, keenly aware of the stares he was getting from his classmates who were leaving the class. Some of the stares lingered more than others, though, with Kris and Theresa being the most prominent ones, followed by Agnes and Namor.

However, Mike didn't care about all of that, he was more focused on the being before him.

The instructor stood on the central platform, her small frame looking weirdly intimidating, and Mike resisted the urge to frown as the feeling of discomfort only grew, and despite his instincts telling him to just turn tail and nope out of there, he still went forward, mostly because he was sure she'd just drag him back if he tried to flee.

Despite knowing this, though, Mike still stopped a few meters away from the platform, refusing to get on it.

This made the instructor raise a brow.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked with thinly veiled irritation.

"I can hear just fine from here Miss," Mike replied politely.

"But I want you to come HERE. Right in front of me." She said with an obvious frown.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"Why not?!"

"You scare me."

"..."

She brought a finger to the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath.

"Son of a... Look, I don't want to hurt you, alright? I just want to talk." She said, her voice deliberately softer, but Mike wasn't buying it.

Now that he was so close, the hunger behind her gaze had gotten stronger, and Mike did not want to be caught off-guard, even if that meant defying her.

"I'm fine here." He smiled, even though he was more than ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

As soon as he said that, his hair stood on end as a strong feeling of danger overtook him, and he was about to activate his aura at maximum output and run, but the feeling vanished just as quickly as it came, confusing him.

And to his surprise, so did the feeling of hunger.

"Haa~. You have a great sense of self-preservation, I'll give you that." She spoke, her voice notably lighter than before.

This threw Mike for a loop.

'She seems... calmer?' He thought tentatively, not wanting to jump to conclusions, but no matter how he looked at it, she seemed a lot calmer than a few seconds ago. Even his instincts indicated so, though, the odd feeling of offense still persisted.

"I guess I was just looking for an excuse to act out, but you aren't brainlessly obedient, so it all worked out in the end." She continued, and Mike was about to ask what she meant when a wrist touched his, making it buzz, and Mike blinked as she simply walked past him, when she'd gotten close, he had no idea.

'She's even faster than Masha...' Mike narrowed his eyes. Getting speed blitzed twice in a day was not fun, he could say that much.

"Give me a call when you're free. I'd like to talk with you, preferably in private." She waved her hand without turning. "Oh, the name is Alice, by the way." And with that, she walked away.

Mike stared for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and sighing.

'It's only the first day of classes. Why does weird stuff keep happening to me?' He thought, both with exasperation and irritation. Granted, he had an idea that things like this would happen after Theresa's continuous warnings and his own experiences, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

"Whatever." He mumbled and shoved his hands into his pockets as he decided to head for his next class, having wasted too much time already.

***

Alice stared from a distance as Mike walked away to his next class, her small form hidden within a shadow.

As soon as he was out of sight, she let out a sigh, her shoulders drooping as though she'd been straining up until now.

"Goodness. I almost lost control." She mumbled as she rubbed a hand across her face. Specifically, across her mouth, and if one were to look, they would see two sharp canines peeking from beneath her lips.

"Seriously, how can someone so weak have such a delectable smell? It was nearly overwhelming..." She immediately took deep breaths as she recalled the scene and the powerful scent that followed Mike which nearly made her lose control of herself.

'Hopefully, he does call. If he lets me have some of his blood... I will make it worth his time.' She thought as her figure fully melted into the shadows.

***

The rest of the day was, thankfully, pretty uneventful, though, Mike still found his last two classes to be enlightening.

Enemy Analysis & Tactical Exploits probably had the second least amount of physical activity out of all his classes. That didn't make it bad, though. Far from it.

During the class, everyone attending was given an introductory lecture about tactics and enemy analysis. Their instructor, a slightly aged man with an unreadable face that even Mike struggled with seeing through, taught with biting efficiency as he spoke about the importance of tactics and analyzing your enemy.

He spoke about how one must never go into a situation without a plan, no matter how impromptu pr loose said plan was, as in his words, a half-assed plan was better than no plan.

He also talked about the importance of having any information about your enemy, whether they were a group or a single person, and tactics went beyond simply knowing how your enemy operated, but also being keenly aware of your surroundings, the environment you and your opponent found yourselves in, the tools you had at your disposal, and so on.

He gave several examples in history, specifically in the battle against the Lizardmen, where two sides were either similar in power or one side was quite a bit stronger, and the weaker side came out on top due to outsmarting the enemy with superior tactics as well as having good information on what they could do, allowing them to develop appropriate countermeasures.

It was a very enlightening class, and by the end of it, the instructor said that their following classes would involve them doing simulations where they would begin to learn how to analyze their enemies and the situations they were in while also deploying tactics.

After that, Behavioral Decoding & Subtextual Analysis was next, and that was easily the most physically undemanding class Mike had.

Like every other lesson, their instructor gave a brief introduction to the purpose of the class and why it was important. The instructor, a slightly younger man than the previous one, talked about how ability users frequently encountered manipulative or deceitful individuals simply due to the nature of their existence, and knowing how to read through these sorts of things was very important as there were cases of strong or talented ability users being deceived into doing terrible things or tricked into traps that led to their deaths, all because they failed to read the intentions of the person they were handling

Furthermore, he explained that, as the young talents of powerful families, they didn't just need to be strong but also well-versed in both communication and understanding subtext, as those skills were paramount when it came to things like politics and negotiations.

While Mike wasn't from any family, he did still think that learning how to negotiate was a skill he should possess since it would come in pretty handy in many situations. Moreover, he had to learn how to do just that back on Klein 4 since people always tried to rip him off.

The instructor also liked Mike quite a bit, as they had a bit of a practical session near the end of the class, and when it came to understanding what people truly meant or reading their intentions, Mike easily did the best of everyone, earning him the man's favor

By the end of the day, Mike thought about how everything had gone and–ignoring the less than fortunate situations–the day had gone pretty well.

He was pretty satisfied with all the lessons he'd picked out, and despite it being the first day, he'd gotten tangible progress. His control over his ability improved and he was starting to understand the intricacies of energy control. He'd also identified a key weakness in the way he fought with his instincts, levelled up two times, and made a new friend, AKA, Kris.

'I think that went pretty well.' He thought as he stretched. His uniform was still a bit roughed up from the combat class, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be cleaned. He also had more in his wardrobe, so that was nice.

As for the bad things that had happened. Well, Mike was aware of them, but he wouldn't do anything for now.

He could make a few guesses as to how certain things would play out, though.

'A lot of people are probably gonna scramble to find out who I am.' He mused. There was no way his identity as an orphan would remain under wraps after the stunt he pulled with Namor, and things would probably get pretty annoying.

Despite that, though, Mike was oddly unbothered.

'I saw this coming anyway, and besides people treating me with even less respect than before, I doubt much would change. However, I wonder how Kris would react. He doesn't know my true background.' He tilted his head before just shrugging.

'Meh, it'll be fine.'