The Hotblade Chronicles (Chapter 1)

*A bit of lore and backstory to introduce readers to the world*

In the middle of a vast ocean as the sun shines brightly, a massive ship of dynamic proportions lays steadily drifting along the ocean heading to it's destination. On board the vessel filled with thousands of people holds three of the finest warriors to come from the small village of Tenchu Town, relaxing and enjoying the view of the sea. Hotblade, Tenshi and Slash, each aged eighteen, eighteen and nineteen respectively, are now headed on their way toward the mysterious and legendary country known as the Land of Sunrise located in the vast nation of Day and Night. In this particular part of the world, Sunrise stands alone on the ocean almost as if an island, with the four other countries Day and Night holds being divided by huge bodies of water which are singly known as the Jikan Ocean. Far across the sea to the west of Sunrise lies the country of Sunset. To the north of the sea houses the country of Moonrise, and to the south lies Moonset. And to the east? There lies an unknown region of land not yet discovered by outsiders who do not already live there. Sprinkled across the nation of Day and Night are hundreds of islands, each with their own culture, inhabitants, and ways of living. Although a nation, this is one where each country and island has technologically advanced in it's own way as well as has it's own sets of traditions and beliefs.

The myth surrounding the Land of Sunrise doesn't actually date back as far as one might think. It used to be a country who's lands were open to any and everybody until about a century ago when it put massive walls constructed of advanced iron, nickel, and carbon elements around it's borders to hide itself from outsiders and seemingly protect something they were hiding inside. In addition to this, millions of people were exiled from the country but given places to stay in other places in return. What did the people who were forced from their homeland say was the reason Sunrise enacted these moves? Nobody knew. Of course there were rumors, conspiracies and false information spread across the nation as a result, but all of it was pure speculation as no one truly knew the government's true intentions in their actions.The country of what once held over fifty million people has now depopulated to only four million. Nowadays, Sunrise is spoken of by almost nobody, enshrouded in a mystery of secrets and enigmas, leaving nothing to be talked about by the people who know nothing about it other than it's legend.

In this world, there are three classes of people that populate the whole planet; Celestials, Hybrids, and regular everyday citizens. Celestials are people, who through many generations, have been granted supernatural powers that are believed to have been bestowed upon them by the gods, hence the name. Dating back since the beginning of time, these powers have been passed down through tons of generations to reach the people that have these same abilities today. the type of power/ability the person has is called an Affinity, and it takes up vast amounts of physical energy to use.  Hybrids are a half monster half human race whose power naturally comes from the type monster they are. Of course half Celestial half monster breeds exist too, but are also categorized as Hybrids. And last but not least, your regular everyday citizens are... your regular everyday citizens. Though not naturally granted with powers or strength like the other two classes, they work hard and train just as much to become strong, and in some cases, even better than the others. In certain parts of the world, these three races coexist peacefully with one another while in other parts, not so well.

Hotblade, Tenshi and Slash are all Celestials who, just like the rest, have their own individual powers that have been passed down in their own respective families and ancestors. Hotblade's affinity is Fire, which he uses for everything from fighting, to keeping warm, to much more trivial things such as lighting someone's cigarette or firepit when they need him to. Tenshi's affinity is for metal. You name it, he can most likely build it with his affinity that he uses to form swords, hammers, knives, shurikens and basically anything he needs that is made of metal. He could make guns, but doesn't since the gunpowder required to shoot isn't made of metal. Instead that's Slash's affinity; the power to form any gun you could possibly think of. His firearms aren't made from metal though, but rather his own Denki (the name for physical energy used for using your affinity). His bullets don't pierce through targets though, but instead explode on impact. Snipers, pistols, rocket launchers, machine guns; if any of his bullets touch you or your surrounding area, or anything solid for that matter, they will detonate.

The three childhood friends consider themselves brothers and therefore call each other as such. They all come from the same village of Tenchu Town which is located in the middle of a vast desert on a separate part of the world away from the nation of Day and Night. As children, Hotblade, Tenshi and Slash excelled in all of their studies and classes in martial arts and affinity training with different reasons for having done so. Hotblade was the adventure loving guy who was always considered perceived as "the kid who knows exactly what he wants and goes for it without much thought." Knowing he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life in the same village and never travel the world, he put his mind towards always trying achieve his goals even if it didn't always work out the way he planned it. It should be noted he was also always in the top choice for guys every girl had wanted to date, though he never quite realized that himself. Tenshi was always the comic relief class clown common sense lacking archetype who despite appearing like a complete idiot, loved to fool everyone with his deep hidden intellect and shockingly good grades. Always feeling like he had something to prove, he vowed to never let people down except when it came to actually sounding intelligent in a regular conversation. Also, his love for women is something that's only second to his ability to hit on all of them, though trying his best to be a gentleman when being around them. It's obvious to say the least that even though girls thought of him as handsome, he wasn't liked at all, which was something he was oddly still happy about. Slash on the other hand, was a completely different story. Having been orphaned from a very young age, he was mostly straight-laced and very serious most of the time, but always tried his best to keep the better side of hatred from reaching him. He found a family within Hotblade and his mom's household after Slash's own family was murdered as a kid. He eventually avenged them after, with the help of his brothers, apprehending a famous wanted criminal from the Land of Sunrise who had committed the murders. This didn't heal any scars though, as Slash would come to be known as the guy who didn't talk or say much to anyone who wasn't Hotblade or Tenshi.  Despite that, he didn't want to be your normal punk, disobey the law and turn evil stereotype therefore also excelling in his studies, though always keeping his calm and serious composure. He's also never had a single romantic interest in anyone, though also immensely popular with the girls as Hotblade was. All three received an exclusive invitation to live in the country of Sunrise after single-handedly stopping corruption of the government in Tenchu Town and successfully capturing the criminal on the loose from Sunrise who had escaped there.

*Now, let the story begin ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)*

"Okay guys, watch me work that classic gentlemanly magic" Tenshi said to Hotblade and Slash as he spotted a lady who was seemingly "the perfect girl" that passed them on the main deck. As he left, Slash casually turned to Hotblade and asked "Should we have stopped him? He knows how this usually ends." 

"Nahh" Hotblade replied "I'm sure he's just trying to entertain himself. We've been on this ship for a week now so he was bound to get bored and do something stupid."

As Tenshi approached the pretty lady with fair skin and light brown hair, he adorned a suit of armor using his affinity to make himself look more manly and important. Towards the back of the main deck, Hotblade smiled while Slash adorned an interested look on his face as the event unfolded in front of them. Eddy and Ariella, the two Sunrise government escorts who met them in Tenchu Town and brought them on board the ship were also to the right of them bearing witness. Eddy was a tall, bald and deeply tanned man with a giant curly mustache and Ariella was a fair skinned blonde with long but pinned up hair. Eddy approached Hotblade and Slash and said "yo, we'll be docked on the harbor soon. Get your stuff from the cabin and be ready." But Ariella interjected "Wait hold on. They'll have plenty of time. I'm sure right now the boys want to see this first so we'll cut em a break." Eddy, although impatiently, reluctantly nodded.

As the girl headed through the doors toward the cabins, Tenshi caught up armor on and everything and held open one of the doors. "Excuse me, but this door looks like it's in your way, let me get that for you. I wouldn't want the rust on the handles to ruin those beautiful hands of yours." She saw his gesture and smiled at him. "Thanks, I appreciate it." Tenshi's stomach fluttered at the sound of her soft, cute voice saying only those three words and that was when he knew it. The chase was most definitely on."Yeah, no problem. And woah! look at this!  Seems like we're both headed toward the same general direction. We might as well save time and get to know each other on the way then. How convenient." She actually laughed and smiled even harder and it appeared to Tenshi that she was actually going to humor him despite where all of this was obviously going. "Okay, so who are you?" She said to him and he replied "Your knight in shining armor. I've come to whisk you away from a life of monotony and immature men." She playfully called him "incredibly lame" but laughed again anyway. Now that the ball was rolling and he had her continuously entertained in the corniest way possible, they continued their conversation while walking down the hall.

Back on the main deck, Hotblade and Slash decided to go back to their cabin as well since Tenshi was out of sight now. Their cabins were located on the far side from the cabins Tenshi and his potential catch were walking towards. "I still refuse to believe it until I see it. Years of dreaming what this place would be like. Talking about it for what felt like ages and coming so close to giving up many times, yet here we are. Imagine the culture, society, people, food and all the technological advancements. Most of all, I just wanna see what it even looks like. It's closed off from the view of the rest of the world and here we are like a couple of champions not being included in the rest anymore. Goddamn I can explode right now." Hotblade spoke with passionate wording and genuine interest. Slash understood his brother, for he too felt the same way, waiting his whole life for an opportunity like this. "But what if it's not even all that amazing as it seems? It could very well be that they constructed those giant walls because of how ugly and stupid it looks on the inside. Maybe they're so embarrassed of the state it's in they couldn't possibly let people see the mess it's in. I mean, what could possibly be the reason for all of their actions besides that?" Though slightly sarcastic, Slash was genuinely interested in Hotblade's opinion. "I don't know, but I do trust in this place hard enough to not let that possibility bother me. Even if it is true think about it. If it is actually hideously ugly and all hype but no dice, we're one of the four million people in a world of thirteen billion who would know the truth of what's inside. Adventure is all about the unexpected anyways and I'd hate if I wasn't surprised by anything along the way so that would make this journey more than worth it just on that basis alone." Slash shared interest in Hotblade's resolution and knew he believed the same. they had come too far anyways to be disappointed by something so trivial. 

Inside the hallway to these specific sets of cabins, Hotblade and Slash approached the room they shared with Tenshi. Grabbing their passports required to enter the country along with their bags filled with clothes and Tenshi's belongings since he was busy at the moment. Then they set out for the front of the main deck. The ship's horn was then sounded loudly and clearly throughout the whole deck followed by a voice over the intercom that said "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, we will now be approaching Sun's Harbor in approximately ten minutes. If all passengers can please make their way to the front of the deck and ready themselves for docking it would be greatly appreciated. We want to thank you again for traveling with us and hope you enjoyed your time here. Have a great day." At this point Hotblade was done with walking and practically sped out the hallway leaving Slash behind in anticipation. Once back on the main deck, Hotblade practically melted as he saw the harbor of Sunrise peek into view over the horizon. Slash had finally caught up with him and asked "Hey, can you light this for me?" as he held up a cigarette. Hotblade flicked his thumb as a small flame formed and lighted it.

They heard a loud, easily distinguishable voice behind them that could have been no one other than Tenshi. Now with the same girl, but back on the main deck as well, Hotblade and Slash saw a huge scowl on her face with crossed arms. The two brothers instinctively looked at each other almost as if to say "uh-oh, it's happening again" and then bore witness as Tenshi got slapped immediately across the face by the girl. He got hit so hard he flew across the boat, and was sent into the ocean sinking with his heavy suit of armor. Eddy and Ariella ran over to Hotblade and Slash with Ariella ecstatically saying "oh my god! Did you guys see that!? We need to get him out now, help!" Hotblade calmly put down her flailing hands and said "don't worry, he gets himself into these situations on a day to day basis, he'll be okay." Tenshi, sinking into the ocean, calmly thought to himself "goddammit I was so close. SO close. I mean it's not like I had bad intentions even if it seemed like it. I just wanted to get to know her better and maybe take her on a date that's all." He scowled hard and decided to get out of the ocean. He receded his armor back into denki energy and floated back up to the surface. Once back up, he stretched out his hand, grew an extensively long metal hook and attached it to the boat. He then pulled himself up slowly and now, soaking wet, approached Hotblade and the crew. "So, how did you manage to destroy any possible chance you had with her this time?" Slash said to a hunched over disappointed Tenshi.  "Welp, there was a confusion of words and their meanings as I like to call it." Everybody rolled their eyes but allowed him to continue. "You see, me dressed a knight plus being a Celestial of metal and all, was showing off my manly abilities to form metal at will to impress her. So i showed her an impressive double edged sword that took mere seconds to craft and she seemed astounded by that. So, quick to build off that first impression I then told her 'you know, I've got a second even more impressive metal sword that isn't just for fighting you know' and smiled. That was when I randomly and swiftly received a hot slap across my face followed by the ocean drowning me. I honestly thought we were on the same page. I was obviously talking about my second sword that could double up as a lightning rod and provide electricity to anything. It's quite a spectacle, I don't see why she would be mad over that." Everyone busted out laughing with Hotblade even shedding a light tear and put his hand on his unfortunate friend's shoulder. "Ah, Tenshi, we tell you time and time again that you gotta pick and choose your words more carefully man otherwise stuff like that is always gonna happen. Girls aren't always gonna assume you're being as innocent as you truly are." Tenshi shoved off Hotblade's hand and scowled even harder. 

With no time to poke more fun at Tenshi's misfortune, the harbor of Sunrise was now right in front of them. The ship was pulling into the docking station and passengers were beginning to line up at the front. Hotblade could've done gymnastics the way he was flipping out over the the whole event. The harbor was huge, with one giant plank of wood extending from the ocean to the gates of Sunrise's entrance. With the ship now officially docked, all the passengers proceeded to walk down the stairs the ship had extended onto the giant plank. Hotblade tried to make a run for it but Eddy stopped him in his tracks. "C'mon now boy, we can't just go skipping everyone and rush in out of excitement. I'm sure everyone would love to get in as soon as possible too." Once on the plank though, Hotblade was nearly unstoppable. he zoomed in front of everyone, who actually didn't seem to mind too much, and headed for the gates. Once there he basically shoved his passport down the throats of the Sunrise officials who guarded the gates and ran through them.

Hotblade was indeed right his whole life. What he saw before him shocked him to almost no end. He was now officially a citizen of the Land of Sunrise and would be spending the rest of his life here. His jaw fell down, broke off, and snapped backed into place multiple times taking in the awe-inspiring view of what Sunrise had to offer. Never before had he seen such menacingly giant towers hovering over him with intricate and unique designs to them. Buildings, stores and structures made out of material never thought possible to man. A marshmallow tower, an all glass building, skyscrapers made entirely out of water. Yes, Water. He could easily see people in business suits swimming their way through multiple floors to get around and people sitting at desks in the water. There were solid objects as well as objects only made from pure H2O in this particular tower that was somehow able to support this. Over to the right was another structure made out of chocolate and candy. There were also structures made out of your usual steel beams, metal, steal, and other regular elements but those were impressive as well because of their architecture. A massive building shaped like an upside down L, and another like a V were all strewn about this particular area by the entrance. One regular building was so incredible just because it was in the shape of a soda bottle, with the cap being the ceiling. It was all almost too much to take in at once. This right here was more than just the hype people talked about. it exceeded any expectations beyond what the legends said about this place. Just above him he saw a floating building that appeared to be a regular cafe except in the sky as impossible as it seemed. Directly to the front of him was a giant intricate water fountain that instead of water, spurted out a rainbow colored substance that looked absolutely beautiful in all it's glory. The thousands of citizens here walked about their daily lives seemingly accustomed to all of the scenery having lived here a long time. They were fascinating as well. People were casually walking up walls, jumping across building tops, hanging from ceilings and bouncing around in order to get from one destination to another. It was honestly unlike anything he ever thought was possible.

Slash, Tenshi, Ariella and Eddy had finally caught up at this point with Slash and Tenshi who were also on the same level Hotblade was at once having caught up. The two of them were at a complete loss for words and just stood there for about ten minutes. Eddy and Ariella knew this was the case and let the boys' eyes do some figuring out to make sense of what was going on. This was also the first time the boys had experienced seeing Hybrids; half human half monster citizens. Some of them had claws, fangs, wings or paws and other creature-like aesthetics with some having more obvious monster-like features than others. Tenshi's eyes had picked up on the women of this region. His Hot-Female-In-The-Vicinity detector was flying off the wall into uncharted territory. He noticed just how gorgeous the women of the country were and how it complimented nicely with the overall beauty of the country itself. The road they stood on was made of solid grayish black glass that appeared unbreakable. These roads wasn't for many cars though, as it appeared that the Celestials and Hybrids preferred to run and jump from place to place also using the streets for transportation while regular citizens used cars with designated lanes for them.

After nearly fifteen minutes had passed, Eddy stepped in and said "alright well you'll definitely have plenty of time to be shocked as you'll be living here from now on. I wouldn't mind us chilling here for awhile but we both have some business to attend to. Prime Minister Cho requested that as soon as you guys reached here that we send you to the city hall where he is located to speak with him. Me and Ariella have some other matters to take care of so we'll have to catch up with you guys later. Hotblade stopped taking in the view for a second and asked "Will we see you guys again?" Eddy smiled for probably the first time and answered "I'm certain we will. Do the best you guys can and maybe one day we'll even be assigned on a mission together, who knows." He handed them a map with a direct route to city hall and explained how to get there. Once that was done with, he and Ariella said their goodbyes and headed off in a separate direction.

Tenshi immediately butted in with "Can we not go there yet? I wanna do everything stupidly possible. This place is so awesome!" Not even considering this idea, Hotblade and Slash set out towards city hall which was quite a distance from where they were and the sun was beginning to set. Being the already skilled Celestials they were though, they reached there in no time, harnessing their denki to propel themselves faster while running.

City hall was to no surprise also an amazing spectacle to behold. The actual building itself sat on top of what seemed like millions of stairs surrounding it on all four sides needing to be climbed to reach the top. They seemed to soar to the clouds making it look like an impossible task to climb. They noticed it had a giant escalator though which was carried regular citizens to the top while Celestials and Hybrids were running up and down the stairs at breakneck speeds, making the stairs the obvious choice for faster transportation if you had denki energy to propel yourself. Reaching the top in a matter of minutes, the three brothers saw just how busy city hall was. Government officials and citizens sprawled across the opening and inside to the building who were all probably on important business. The three of them had to wade through the thick crowd and watch their step just to get into the building. Inside, the room was beautiful rose gold and regular gold paint complimented each other nicely to the red carpets on the floor in a unique pattern. They saw multiple doors leading to different places, as well has three more giants halls leading to the rest of the building on the north, west, and east. 

A man of dark complexion and sophisticated clothing approached them from behind and said to them "Welcome to city hall. We received word from Eddy and Ariella you guys would be here shortly and thus we had officials here on the lookout for a group of three of your characteristics. Please come to the main office, the Prime Minister would like to meet you and have a word." The three brothers nodded and followed the man to a remote door at the end of the north hall. He opened it, and gestured for them to go inside, though not following but instead closing the door. This room looked very classical. A fire pit towards the back was the only source of light, though still bright, and all that populated the small room were giant book shelves filled with literature and a small desk with stacks of paper. An old bald man with loose fitting robes and a gray mustache stood there gently smiling at the boys. "Welcome to my humble country brave ones. I am the Prime Minister and ruler of the country Cho Aburaki. You may address me as Minister Cho, or simply Minister. The three brothers did the only thing they thought was right and bowed down respectfully replying "Thank you for this opportunity Minister." Recognizing this, he started to slowly pace back and forth by the fire pit explaining everything to them. 

"First off I want to thank you boys for apprehending the criminal who fled Sunrise and hid himself among the village you all came from. By no means was he any random two bit law breaker either. He has been wanted for the murder of thirty individuals as well as multiple counts of conspiracy against the government. Some of our best men couldn't even capture him so how you boys were able to do so is beyond me but it was certainly more than enough to extend an invitational hand into my country. As you all probably already know, we don't just let anybody through these sacred walls. You've gotta be hand selected, have special traits and actually be somebody. That's why we've had to depopulate our country dramatically during this past century. We were always a world power, and neighboring countries around us know that. Being the weak country we used to be, we were always susceptible to siege and military attacks in times of war. Lots of people were dying, parts of our country were being divided, and we were always vulnerable. We needed this rebuild this land, have it be a country of unique individuals with a special set of skills along with an infrastructure that reflects that in order to grow. I know you noticed once you walked through the front gates that nothing here quite looks like anything you've ever seen before. The uniqueness of our country and it's aesthetics reflect that of the people who've built them and helped shaped our economy over the past century, improving it and possibly finally making us stronger than any other."

Done with that bit, he paced back a little bit more before he went on to then explain the boys' situation. "Basically you guys are here because Sunrise could use individuals like you. Being highly skilled for your age, we want you to join the Reposa; an atypical military workforce based regime of sorts that's main purpose is to serve and protect the people of Sunrise. We want you to attend school here, tuition and dormitory paid of course, and work for us. We offer amazing salaries, benefits, housing and the opportunity to travel all over the world carrying out all sorts of missions granted you're able to graduate to become one of us." Hotblade threw his sly smile in front of his face and said "Of course. I think I speak for my brothers too when I say we're fully committed to doing the most while being here. It's what we do."

The Minister nodded his head in delight to hear the enthusiasm and continued. "Very well then. I know it seems immediate but if you are indeed as ready as you say we can sign you up for school and thus should be prepared to start tomorrow. You should head there immediately after here to find out your dormitory room locations as well as class schedules." The Minister then went over to Hotblade, grabbed the map he was holding, and gestured for the boys to come over to see. "This map is of the entire country of Sunrise. We are at city hall which is in the middle of the whole country. You boys entered through the front gates to the south, which is known as the Disenia district, the name for our business area. That's why you found the giant towering buildings built in all sorts of shapes and sizes. 

He then pointed his hand toward the left side of the map. This area is called Fantasia. It's our entertainment district purely used for that sole purpose. Casinos, bars, arcades, concerts, karaoke, and tons of other types of entertainment exist here. There are even some types of entertainment here I can't properly explain in words because of how off the wall it is. Be careful though, as it's easy to lose track of time and get caught up here and we want you boys to focus on school just as much as having a good time. he then pointed his hand towards the top part of the map and said "This is called the Outback. Here is where the housing is for most people in the country as well as the wildlife. You'll find that tons of trees, forests, and exotic wild animals are in abundance here with the houses situated in certain locations away from it. You probably won't be here too much until you graduate from school and find a house to live in." He then pointed toward the right side of the map and explained "And finally, this is the University district. It's where you boys will be going to school and spend a lot of time until graduation. Here you'll find an almost endless line of schools and buildings solely used for the purpose of education. You'll find hundreds upon thousands of students here studying for different fields such as medicine, Reposa training, economics, architecture, and many other types." 

The Minister then neatly rolled up the map and gave it back to Hotblade. "I hope you boys make the most of the opportunities we are giving you here. Being one of the few outsiders we have ever invited into these walls, we are hoping you do well here." Tenshi, who replied to the Minister, said "Thank you, we're all grateful and we'll definitely be at the top in no time." The Minister then smiled, extended them a firm handshake and called for an assistant to escort them back to the front of city hall.

Once there, the boys were finally on their own again. Night had fallen upon them by the time they were outside. Slash was the first one to break the silence among them. "So, you guys excited?" Hotblade nodded and said "You already know it. now I definitely know I'm gonna become the most famous person in the country and soon all over the world. Hotblade will be a household name everyone's gonna look upon and secretly worship." Tenshi gave his brother an unexpected nuggie to the head and exclaimed "Hey dont get ahead of yourself man we just got here. Besides, I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to pass my divine strength before you get anywhere near the top." 

They headed down to the University district all while joking with each other to no end. Tenshi wouldn't stop dispensing killer nuggies to Hotblade while Slash, being the quiet one, smiled and enjoyed his brothers' antics. Tenshi finally let go of Hotblade and asked "So dearest brother of mine, you plan of finding a nice girlfriend here and finally settling down? There's plenty of beautiful women here if I do say so myself." To which Hotblade stuck out his tongue and replied "Nah, you know me man. I've never found a girl who was my type and it'll probably be a long time until I do. What about you? Any plans to improve your game? Cuz at this rate you're practically dying alone dude." Tenshi knitted his brows and came back at him saying "My game is practically Grand Theft Auto boy, awesome and universally loved by millions. So until you get a girlfriend I don't wanna hear it." He then turned toward Slash who was thinking to himself and nudged him annoyingly "so, Slash, how about you man. I know you're putting up that silent and serious character archetype just to appear cool, right? Why not find yourself a nice wifey with that cool demeanor dude? The girls eat it up." Slash gave him a snarky look and sarcastically replied "Hey, if I ever find a chick whose as cool, calm and collected as I am, she just may be worth my time. But then in that case, she'd likely be putting up a front and be an arechetype too huh? So that's not likely." to which Tenshi quietly spoke "Always gotta have a cool comeback huh?"

They had finally reached the University district where the schools were located and it was just as massive, if not bigger than the Disenia district. As they headed down the street, they saw an impressive building of intricate architecture that held a huge sign across the front that read 'Reposa Uni.' Heading inside, it was the first time they experienced automatic doors that slide open as you approach them. Tenshi nearly pissed himself at the magnificence while Hotblade stared in awe. Inside, there were tons of students around their age studying, signing up for classes or just plain horsing around. Celestials, Hybrids and regular citizens all interacting with one another were casually strewn about. They headed for the line that read 'Registration' and waited. Hotblade turned to Tenshi and Slash slyly asking "You guys nervous at all?" To which Slash replied "Not really, though it does look like all of us have a lot more fierce competition besides ourselves to rise up the ranks against" while Tenshi agreed "Yeah me neither. I'm more excited than anything. There's so much more students here than Tenchu Town could have ever hoped to have. We were the best they had there so I'm curious to see how we stack up against others here." 

The three of them had finally reached the front of the line when the lady at the desk in front of them called them over. After successfully registering, they were told they'd have to take a personality test to determine which classrooms they'd be in and which dormitory roommate they'd be sleeping with. The lady phoned in an assistant who brought them to the what they called the "personality test room." She was a young woman, appearing to be in her early thirties, with dark purple colored hair, black eyes, and a deep bronze complexion. She said to them "Hello Hotblade, Tenshi and Slash. Welcome to Reposa Uni. I'm Mrs. Yura, one of the professors here at the university here to administer the personality test. Tenshi shot up his hand asked "Um, why do we have to take this test? and is it hard?" She laughed lightly, giggling almost and said "Well aren't you abrasive? But I have no problem answering that. First, this test is to determine who your classmates will be as well as your dormitory roommate. We want your classmates to all be different people from you because we want you to be able to adapt to new situations, different environments and types of people. On the other hand, we want your dormitory roommate to share the same traits as you in order to create a peaceful living environment. Secondly, no, this test won't be hard at all. Actually all you have to do is put on this helmet and this machine here will handle the rest." She pointed towards the helmets that more or less resembled some batshit insane scientist's mind control devices and gestured for them to put it on. Hesitantly, they all fitted the devices over their cranium as the machine started to bustle and make noises. After five minutes, the machine stopped and out came three slips of paper with data written on each. She checked Tenshi and Slash's papers before finally coming across Hotblade's. "Woah, um, okay." Her eyes widened as she dropped his paper on the desk beside her. She exclaimed "okay, you boys wait right here and I'll be right back" as she ran out the door. Hotblade picked up the paper with his name on it and said "What?? Am I all of a sudden a weird alien from outer space? She didn't react to you guys' papers like that." Tenshi laughed hard as hell and dropped to the floor "Dude! Maybe you're harboring some weird thoughts and desires we never knew about! Are you like, some sort of evil criminal or something. Do you secretly have delightful thoughts of murder?" Hotblade brushed Tenshi's remark aside and turned toward Slash "Okay, can I get a more serious opinion over here?" Slash shrugged and said "maybe you really are an alien." He didn't know what to think of it either but it wasn't long before Mrs. Yura came back with a tall, Husky looking man with a giant frame. He greeted the boys while the professor handed him Hotblade's paper and said "See? I don't think that's ever happened before. The machine is never wrong either." The tall man laughed as if to sidestep her distress and told her "It's not a big deal Mrs. Yura. Get back to the office and I'll handle this one." She exclaimed "Yes sir! Sorry sir!" before heading back out the hall. The man sat down in one of the seats beside them and turned towards the boys. 

"Which one of you is Hotblade?" Hotblade slowly rose his hand hesitantly awaiting the results. "Uh yes, nice to meet you as well as you Tenshi and Slash. Reposa Uni is honored to have students such as yourselves join us. I am the Dean of this school here, call me Mr. Adams. Sorry about all the commotion just now but it seems we have a special case on our hands." He grabbed Tenshi and Slash's papers as well and continued. "To properly explain, I'd like to use your friends as an example. I'm not going to say too much about the results for confidential reasons but basically it lists positive and negative traits in a form of data only decipherable by certain members of this school, me being one of them. It obviously can't tell us everything you are or everything of what your like, but its generally accurate. He turned toward Hotblade gearing him for a longer explanation. "Your test here says your personality is carefree, extroverted and passionate, but much like Tenshi's negative trait on his test, also lack common sense or can be oblivious to certain things. This isn't what surprises us though. The second part of the test is what had Mrs. Yura shocked and quite frankly, me to a certain extent as well. It tests your compatibility rate against every student in the school to pick your appropriate classes and dorms and well, you're the first ever to have this type of rating." Hotblade, with a quizzical looked asked "what type of rating do I have then?" To which the Dean said "Well our machine basically says you have what we call a pure heart. You're capable of no wrong doings, at least on purpose. according to the test." He paused for a second letting Hotblade absorb that part before continuing. "You also have a one hundred percent compatibility rate with everyone in the school. Now while this means you will get along with anyone we put you with, that doesnt mean everyone themselves are gonna like you or get along with you. But that means we can't determine which specific class to put you in and we'll have to place you at random. Also, there's something important you've gotta know about your dorm." The Dean got even more serious and Hotblade was wondering what more he could possibly have to surprise him with. 

"Are you listening my boy?" The Dean asked. Hotblade nodded with seriousness enshrouded all over him as the Dean leaned in a bit more. "Right now we are currently overpopulated to the max in the boys' dormitory right now. Slash and Tenshi here filled up the last two available slots for this semester. This means we'd have to put you in a separate dormitory extremely far away from here with available rooms which would probably trouble you immensely." He then coughed and if possible, looked even more serious than he did before. "BUT, combined with your pure of heart rating on your personality test,  one hundred percent compatibility rate and that unfortunate situation we have going on here, for the first time ever at Reposa Uni history, we're gonna be putting you in the girls' dormitory side. This also meaning your rommate will indeed be a girl." Everyone in the room sat in complete dead silence. Tenshi's eyes deadened and even Slash  looked over at Hotblade with a dead look. Hotblade couldn't believe it himself either. His test results plus the decision of his dorm location made this a hell of a situation. Not that the girls' dormitory mattered to him that much being the type of person he is, but the stigma behind it all that he'd be the only guy there in forbidden territory shocked him. Also the fact that most likely whoever he paired up with would freak out made this just as bad.

Tenshi grabbed his brother by the collar of his shirt and said "you b*****d! If you don't treasure this moment for the rest of your life, I swear. This is a dream come true for every college guy ever!" Hotblade comedically took Tenshi's hands off and laughed. "It's really not a dream though. At least not to me. I don't care who my roommate is. I just wanna finish school, join the Reposa and travel the world. That's my dream now." The Dean ecstatically agreed "See! The machine wasn't wrong at all. Plus statements like that are why we know we can do this in good faith.." Tenshi, still mildly jealous and wondering if this school was way in over it's head understood the decision though. Because if anyone knew Hotblade, it was Tenshi and Slash, and they knew that test was completely right. He had always been a carefree pure of heart individual so there was no use complaining. Slash didn't care too much either after being initially shocked for a while.

It was already nighttime and getting pretty late so Tenshi and Slash were given their school schedule as well as dormitory keys with the room number and sent on their way. They had obviously been paired up as roommates since they had the most compatibility with each other. Before leaving the room though, Tenshi hugged his brother and said "Look, as much as I hate you right now, it's all love. Try not to have your first girlfriend without me." To which Hotblade said "I'll try my absolute hardest." Once Tenshi left, Slash also approached and said to Hotblade "I hope you have a good night. I'm not gonna hug you or anything but you know the feeling is mutual." Hotblade ruffled up Slash's hair like a little kid and said "You know I know that. Love you too bro." and stuck out his tongue.

Hotblade was by himself now for the first time since leaving Tenchu Town. He felt confident though, ready to get into his dorm room and hit the sack. The Dean was still in the room though and said "things are going to be a little more complicated for you so I'm having the head official of the female dormitory taking you to your room to explain the situation to your roommate." Hotblade nodded and waited for the lady who took him to his room. The entire female dormitory was one long  series of extended hallways on the third floor of the building. 

The woman brought him to room 300 and knocked on the door. After a couple of seconds a click could be heard followed by the creaking of the door opening. A girl, Hotblade's age, eyes widened as she witnessed a boy, who was in the girls' dormitory, standing in front of her. She was a slender, beautiful girl with bright blue hair with blue eyes to match. Her fairly tanned skin and extraordinary physique would have any boy head over heels were it not Hotblade. In the back surprisingly, was another girl with dark orange hair also with eyes to match except with a darkened skin complexion. She was beautiful as well. The girl with blue hair said "umm, hi?" and the lady who ran the dormitory began to explain. "Under special circumstances he is to stay here in this room due to limitations on the boys side. Don't worry, he's approved to stay here and won't be trying anything funny." The girl was obviously not going to have it though. She protested like a madman back and forth while Hotblade stayed completely silent. The girl with orange hair in the back didn't seem to care too much about what was going on though, minding her own business. After what seemed like hours, the conversation finally came down to "look, this is the last time I'm saying this. He is here to stay here indefinitely and if you have a problem, take it up with the Dean but he is the one who assigned him here and most likely won't be changing his mind." She then gestured for Hotblade to walk into the room, which he did, and was handed his own set of keys. She said to him "hey she may give you a hard time so I'm sorry in advance. Also, you do have two roommates but there are three beds and enough space so everything should be adequate. She quickly smiled him off, closed the door, and ran off like a madman leaving Hotblade defenseless. Now he was all alone in the room with the two girls who were staring daggers at him. 

The blue haired girl was the first to speak. "Okay first off, we've gotta set boundaries, okay?" Hotblade yawned loudly and said "yeah yeah whatever. No pervy stuff, stay on my side of the room, don't touch anything. I'm super tired can I go to sleep?" Her head grew to overly sized anime proportions as she screamed "NO! you can not! How do I even know you wont do anything?? I don't know you, I don't trust you, I don't like anything that's going on here." By now she was absolutely fuming. The orange haired girl was calm and collected though, gently filing her nails as she spoke. "Ritsa, calm down. If he was approved to be here, it's trustworthy. Has Uni ever done anything that would jeopardize it's reputation as a prestigious school? Besides, he seems chill. Let's not make this into something big." Ritsa, which seemed to be the blue haired girl's name calmed down almost too quick the minute her friend's words came out but still had a scowl on her face. "It doesn't mean I have to like what's going on here and I certainly don't but whatever, I guess your right. He does anything anyway and I'm reporting him so it's whatever." Hotblade stuck out his hand and said "Okay well my name is Hotblade and I really want us to get along so we don't hate each other the whole semester." She looked at him and his nice demeanor with his smile she found oddly attractive and blushed a little bit. She was then aware and very embarrassed of the big commotion she had created while her friend, Hotblade, and even the dorm lady kept calm. Red faced and embarrassed she reluctantly shook his hand and said "I'm Ritsa." the orange haired girl also walked over and shook his hand as well. "I'm Clara. Nice to meet you. Is your name seriously Hotblade though? Sounds incredibly weird to be honest, like some badly written superhero name." Hotblade genuinely laughed as he had always gotten remarks like that his whole life from outsiders. Yes, our protagonist Hotblade does have a real name though. In the village of Tenchu Town where he comes from, everyone either uses their real name or a nickname. He and Slash chose the latter while Tenshi used his real name. "Haha, no it's not my real actual name" he said. "But it's worth more to me than my real name does and I only prefer to be called by that." Clara smiled and accepted that, almost as if she had felt the same. After noticing her friend was still embarrassed sitting on her bed silent after the whole exchange, she said "Well there's not much as far as tours go, but over there is the bathroom, the kitchen is obviously on the other side, and your bed is against the wall over there." pointing to the various locations. 

Noticing they were in their pajamas, Hotblade knew they were getting ready for bed and he did too. putting his backpack and map he had been carrying all day along on the floor beside his bed, he went into the bathroom to change clothes, take a shower , brush his teeth and get ready for sleep. By the time he got out the two girls were asleep, including Ritsa, who ironically felt totally unsafe just moments earlier. Hotblade turned off the lights to the doorm and lied down in his bed softly thinking to himself before falling asleep. "I'm going to be the greatest there ever was to be, and I'm going to find my father no matter what." and dozed off dreaming about adventure.

*End of chapter 1*

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*Next chapter preview*

The first semester of college starts and so do the preliminary tournaments! Skills are being tested the first day of school to see where everybody ranks in the whole school! Who is the strongest?? How do our protagonists stack up against the competition?? . Fights, drama, romance, action, mystery, new colorful characters, missions and much more in chapter 2 of The Hotblade Chronicles!

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*Author's afterthoughts*

If you read this far, thanks so much! This section will be dedicated in each chapter to giving any thoughts I may have or extras about the story. Feel free to skip. Here, I just wanted to say that I've been developing The Hotblade Chronicles since 2nd grade, building the world in my own little imagination as I grew up. I'm now a second year in college taking writing classes and I figured hey, I'm probably decent at writing now (at least my professors think so) I might as well give this another shot. Yes, another. Three years ago I wrote seven chapters of this book on Miss Literati only to scrap it because my writing skills and pacing of the story just weren't up to par. Not to say they're perfect now (definitely not) but I am able to express ideas and convey themes on a whole other level compared to before and am proud to say that even if this book doesn't take off, I plan on finishing it. it's always been a personal dream of mine.