"Are you ready, Laelah?" I said that and held her arms while smiling at her.

Laela and I are childhood best friends, and we are here right now to pursue our dreams.

"Yes, Maeve, but I'm a bit scared and nervous." I could tell Laelah was scared and nervous, but I smiled reassuringly and told her, "I know it's scary and that's okay," I said reassuringly, "I'm here with you, and I believe that both of us can do it, and we're already here, so there's no turning back." I said this because I wanted to encourage her and remind her that we are in this together, that she should be confident in her own abilities, and that no matter what happens, we can keep going.

"Even if times become difficult, we must never forget that all of the people in our village are supporting us and believing in us. We have so much to be proud of, and a lot of people believe in us, and we can use that strength to push forward and believe in ourselves." I want to boost her morale and inspire her to keep going, no matter how difficult things may become. After I said this, Lilah began to smile and feel a little more reassured.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, you're right, and..." She grabbed both of my hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. She looked at me and said, "Thank you for everything, because without you, I would never have been able to make it this far, and I wouldn't be able to pass the exam," Lealah said with a soft smile and a determined look in her eyes.

I returned the smile and nodded as a silent confirmation that I'm always here for her, giving her hands a squeeze in return, and it motivated me to push myself even further. We worked hard over the years and were ready to take on this challenge.

We've arrived at the gate of the training academy. Two guards approached and inquired about our intent, to which we proudly told them we were here to join the academy and showed them the papers. The two guards took it and inspected it, then gave us a nod of approval, and after that, they congratulated us. They opened the gate and gave us directions.

We were now walking down the wide cobblestone path that led to the entrance of the academy, and as we got closer, we could see the magnificent structure ahead of us, where we would spend the next six months honing your skills as a sinner hunter. We entered the door to the academy and were immediately met with a long, marble-tiled room filled with tall windows, an intricately carved wooden desk, and the portraits of renowned sinner hunters from years past, and we saw a woman at the table. I think she is in her mid-50s. We moved forward to that table.

"Hello!" we greeted simultaneously.

"Yes?" She raised her gaze to us, and she was at her desk, filing up some papers. "What can I do for the both of you?" I pulled the paper out of my bag, which I had shown earlier to the two guards, and handed it to the front desk lady, which indicated that we had passed the exam with our identification cards. She took it and scanned the papers. She asked some questions for clarification, and we answered her questions, and she nodded with satisfaction. After some questioning and clarification, she stood up and started to walk to the door, which she opened, welcoming us in with a warm smile. "Follow me," she said, and we followed her. We were walking down a long hallway with statues on either side of us. It looked scary and felt eerie; we just ignored it so it wouldn't add to our fear and nervousness, and we just kept walking with only the sound of footsteps making noise. As we kept walking down the hallway, the feeling grew more intense. We've been walking for about five minutes, and we stopped at a large iron door with an engraved symbol. "We're here." The two of us took a deep breath, and then she opened the door, and with a final exchange of glances, we stepped forward, which opened up to a large room filled with various weapons and armor, and we saw that there were already many people. I believe there are about 50 people.

"Just wait here for the next announcement." We nodded, and we said thank you before she went back to her desk. While we were thanking and bowing to the front desk lady, we had no idea that they were all staring at us.

"Why are they staring at us?" she wondered. We exchanged glances with each other, as to why all these people were staring at us.

"Is there something wrong with our faces?" Laelah wondered.

"Just one answer with two choices—either they're all just mesmerized by our beauty or we're just late," I said, and we laughed.

We just walked in the middle of the room and didn't mind all the staring.

We were just talking when it came to our attention that three people were walking on it and heading to the center of the room. They were all wearing a full set of uniforms, each carrying a weapon of some kind, and they exuded an air of authority that made them appear to be the leaders. There's a woman on the right side of a middle-aged man. I think she is still in her 30s. She is beautiful and tall, with black hair down to her waist, and I also looked at the two men with her. The guy in the middle is around 50 years old and also tall, and even though he is in his 50s, he seems to be in good physical shape, while the other man, standing on his right, is taller and appears to be the same age as me. His hair color is blonde, and he has an athletic build.

"Welcome trainees," said the fifty-year-old man as he took a step forward. "I am Commander Drake Collymore, your commanding officer in this academy," he introduced himself. He motioned for his two companions and said, "These two here will be the ones to train everyone here for six months." The first girl stepped forward and introduced herself. "Captain Shanaih Lin, and if you think it'll be easy because I'm a woman, then I assure you, it will be quite the opposite, and be prepared for torturous training." She said it with a terrifying smile.

"Woah. "She is scary." I muttered that to myself as I watched her step back in line as the guy with blonde hair stepped forward. "Yo! "I'm James Simon Reed, and I'm here to train you all, and don't worry, I'm harmless," he said, smiling warmly and confidently. I was shocked into disbelief because his character was far different than what I had originally perceived. I thought he had the same serious, cold aura as Captain Lin.

Everyone in the room was whispering, and I could hear the three girls here giggling and whispering in front of me. They're like the Powerpuff Girls: each girl has a different color of hair, and it's easy to tell who's who.

"Kyaah! He's ridiculously hot, tall, and lean, with his thick eyebrows and mesmerizing blue eyes, which make him more handsome." said the yellow-haired girl with pigtails. The other two girls, one with long, curly red hair and one with short black hair, nodded in agreement. That comment sparked a discussion among the girls, with the three of them agreeing.

"It hurt my eyes to see these people's ugly faces until this handsome one appeared, and my eyes are no longer throbbing. " said the girl with the long, curly red hair and grayish-to-dark eyes. The other two girls laughed and nodded in agreement, noting that it was a relief to see such an attractive man amidst the throngs of unappealing people.

"I couldn't agree more," The girl with short hair chimed in.

"Gosh!" We're lucky girls."

"I hope there are many of them who are as handsome as him that I can get married with," said the yellow-haired girl with pigtails. "But do we have chances?"

"Hmp! ""As I look at our surroundings, we have a lot of chances since the girls here are out of touch with beauty standards and ugly, and that gives us the opportunity to stand out and be noticed despite the lack of good-looking girls," the girl with curly red hair said confidently. The yellow-haired girl nodded in agreement, and thought to herself how lucky they were to have such an opportunity.

That's what I heard with these girls, and since we are nearer to them, their whisper is a little louder, so even though they are whispering, I can still hear them. and it left me shocked and in disbelief, while I can certainly agree that the person they described is good-looking. He can really attract a lot of girls. The only thing that I don't agree with them on is that they belittle us, their fellow women, and I think it is important to remember that beauty comes in many different forms and also that they come here for training, not to look for love, right? I sighed. 'Ugh! And now I'm being nosy.'

"Ehem." Commander Collymore cleared his throat and continued. "You heard correctly, these two will train each of you here for six months!

"That is why Don't be complacent, as the challenges you'll face here will be quite rigorous, and it doesn't mean that once you've passed through here you are automatically a full-fledged hunter. You're making a mistake here. I'm here to tell you that the road ahead is not going to be easy, and being a sinner hunter is not easy. So that is why every month we will be having evaluations. Evaluation is necessary since we are looking for capable people who can fight a life-and-death situation. Each of you here will be graded and if you manage to stay in the 85 or above for six months, you will be given a chance to go on special missions and graduate as a full-fledged sinner hunter. Every time a training session is conducted, your points will be awarded based on how well you perform. The highest score given in each training session is 5, and the lowest point total is 1."

Trainees" he yelled.

"One last thing, I want you to remember that you are here for a purpose, and that purpose is to learn, excel, and eventually become great officers in the service of our nation." He said it in a confident way.

"That's all there is to it, and good luck," he said, and he left with two of his young companions.

Everyone here is shocked after hearing that. Even the Powerpuff Girls are being silent. We didn't know this was their system of training for being sinner hunters, and we thought we'd made it, but we still have a lot of things to do. That is why everyone is stunned right now.

She suddenly grabbed my left arm, and I could feel the tension in her grip. She whispered to me, "We weren't expecting any of this! What do you think we should do?" I was so surprised and confused that I could hardly think, and I could feel her anxiety as well. I could feel my heart racing at the fear of the fact that the two of us will have to fight and compete for the top spot in this training session. The pressure was already starting to build, and I don't know how I am going to handle it. I had to take a deep breath and think of all the possibilities. I knew I had to make a decision fast, so I decided to tell her that we should work together and plan a strategy that would benefit us both so that we could both reach the top together. We both agreed that it was a great plan. "We can do this." We both knew it would be a difficult journey, but we were willing to take the risk. Both of us smiled and nodded in agreement.

After the commander left,

"You guys can relax now since the commander has left," he said. "You know what? When I was still a trainee, just like you guys, Commander was the one who trained our batch, and I still recall how those six months were a living hell, with the commander being so harsh that most of us thought we wouldn't be able to survive the training. Then he paused, creating a nostalgic face as he spoke about his memories. And after a while, he said: "You guys are extremely lucky that the commander is not the one who will train you guys, so don't worry, I won't bite as hard as Captain Lin here," James said foolishly with a goofy smile on his face.

"Captain!" She yelped

"Relax, captain," he said once more. "Nothing has changed till now; he is still scary and strict; the only thing that has changed is that he still had hair at that time, but now he has a head that looks like a stainless steel bowl."

"Pfft." I covered my mouth, realizing that I had laughed loudly because of his comments. Laelah looked at me, too, for suddenly laughing so loudly, and now everyone is looking at me.

She was about to punch him in the shoulder, but he dodged it. "You're getting too much." "You should set an example and act as a higher-ranking individual."

"Yeah. That's what I'm trying to do by setting an example that I'm being honest here and lying is not okay."

"Are you f***ing kidding me, Captain?" She grabbed his collar, trying to choke him out.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to make the atmosphere here more cheerful since it's their first day, and the tension in this room is heavy, making it more difficult to breathe."

"Right, Miss?" He asked warmly, smiling, looking for an ally to agree with what he said. He put me in an awkward situation, and everyone is staring at me. Especially the Powerpuff Girls, who are staring at me like they are about to kill me. Ugh! I want to smack him in the face because of it. I understand the captain's feelings already about wanting to kill this guy.

And Captain Lin looked at me and said, "And you!" and I could feel the anger radiating from her.

"Come forward and state your name." She said this while pointing her finger at me. I froze. All eyes in the room were focused on me as I nervously stepped forward, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I introduced myself.

"I am Maeve Vanille Fray, and I apologize for my behavior being disrespectful to Commander Collymore." My voice wavered, and I bowed down in apology.

"That behavior is disrespectful to the commander. I was about to give you a deduction, but I think it's not fair since you are not the ones who caused it." Captain Lin said, motioning for me to return to my post.

I felt such relief that she wasn't going to punish me. Laelah approached and asked if I was okay, and I nodded to her as an answer.

"So this is a reminder to everyone here in this room that respect is the cornerstone of this unit, "especially you, captain," the captain warned, giving Captain James a lethal glare.

"Yes, ma'am," Captain James replied, smiling like an innocent child as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Since the introduction is over. I think it's time for me to leave since I still have a significant amount of work to completebefore tomorrow's training. Take it away captain. " He spoke up, and the captain shooed him away.

"All right, bye, everyone." He said this while smiling and giving me the peace sign. I stood there in awe, watching him confidently leave the room.

"Don't be like him in the future," said Captain Lin in a dispassionate tone. I can feel the tone of the captain when she says that having to deal with a comrade who has no sense of urgency every day is a pain in the neck.

I heard the Powerpuff Girls talking again. I'm becoming a certified marites here.

"Did he just smile at us?" The Powerpuff girls giggle. "But he was giving a peace sign, could it be?" and three of them were looking in my direction. I'm in danger.

I quickly looked away in their direction, trying my best to ignore their glaring stares because I knew from the way they stared at me that they wanted me to be buried alive.

I sighed "Ugh! I don't like this situation. Please, he is all yours, and that is not my focus here. I have no intention of taking away your joy, and I'm not here to steal him away from you and he is not my type, okay? I'm not your enemy here." I thought to myself and I wanted to say that loudly to them, and then the captain called our attention.

"Trainees," said Captain Lin Command.

We immediately stood to attention and awaited further instructions. She hands us a piece of paper with a message on it, which she begins to read aloud. The paper contains the meal schedule, the curfew, rules and regulations here. There are separate rooms for men and women. The rooms for men are located in the north wing, while the women's rooms are in the south wing. At 0600 hours breakfast is served and ends at 0700 whereas lunch is from 12:00 to 13:00 hours, and dinner starts at 19:00 and ends at 20:00 hours in the evening, and we have one free hour left to do our things. Furthermore, the paper also contains a list of activities that can be undertaken during the free hour. Men are not permitted in women's rooms, and women are not permitted in men's rooms. In addition, there is a strict curfew at 22:00 hours after which we are not allowed to be out of our rooms, and visitors are also strictly prohibited.

"I'd like everyone in their rooms by ten o'clock, and they may not leave after that. If you violate any rules, you will be harshly punished or immediately dropped. Additionally, we will check each room every night, and an officer will be on patrol and placed at every corner if you try to sneak out on us. I'm warning each of you not to act foolishly." Captain Lin warned us.

"At precisely 0700 hours tomorrow, we will begin our training here. I urge everyone to arrive at our training on time, not even a few seconds late, or you will automatically be deducted five points, a severe punishment will be imposed, and I will not accept any excuses. I detest tardiness because, in real-life scenarios, a lot could have happened even just a few seconds ago. It can have serious repercussions in a battle and is especially important for a soldier in a war zone, where time is of the utmost importance. We are all responsible for our own actions, and therefore I expect everyone to be punctual in order to ensure that the training is conducted properly and efficiently."

"Is that clear?" the captain said in an authoritative voice.

We uttered a unified "Yes, Captain."

"I am certain that each one of you will follow this rule, so you may begin to prepare for tomorrow's training. Dismissed"

With these words, our commanding officer ended the briefing, and we saluted in unison. After our first meeting, we went to our rooms.