NICO'S POV

Year 1013. My name is Nico Yazawa. 13 years of age. Three years have passed since the fall of Wall Aya.

I am at a boot camp. The camp is located somewhere inside Wall Emi's wastelands. The morning sun shines brightly over all of us. Everyone else here are all strangers.

The instructor in front of us is a tall man with dark hair wearing a dark green coat. He's actually Hiroto Kousaka, the former Commander of the Love Live Survey Corps. Retiring from a high position, he reassigned himself to being just one of many instructors of the Trainee Corps.

"All of you maggots better be introducing yourselves one by one!!"

I waited my turn. The instructor went to other recruits one by one.

"Kanan Matsuura, sir!! A hunter from the northern districts, sir!!"

"You!! Why the hell did you drag your stench all the way here!!?"

"I came here to learn, sir!!"

"Learn what?!!"

"To learn how to be brave, sir!! To learn how to be useful! To learn how to protect others, sir!!"

"Well good for you!! You're gonna learn all that shit here!! I will turn your cowardly spine inside out till you break your ribs and bleed like a fighting patriot!!"

Kanan is here? I remember her very well. I am happy to see her here. She seems to be just as dedicated and patriotic as I am.

I wonder what I should say? It has to be something patriotic as well.

"You!! What the fuck is a clean piece of day spa shit here out in the sun?!!"

"Dia Kurosawa, sir!!"

"Oh, well you look it here!! Everyone, looks like we got ourselves a royalty in here!!"

"Royalty?!!", I whispered when I heard about this recruit's identity.

"You!! Come out of here right now!!"

"Ah....yes!!!"

Instructor Kousaka dragged this girl out in front of all of us.

"All you maggots be lucky!! This girl in front of you all is the first princess of the Kurosawa royal family!! In other words, she is the Queen's heir to the throne!! I hope you all feel more proud now about offering your lives for mankind!!"

Everyone is awed. It is obviously rare to find someone from the Inner Wall, even more so a member of the royal family, to bring herself out of Wall Suzuko's comfort and enter a harsh world like this.

"Am I right, little girl!!? You retired yourself from a shitty, easy life at the Interior's throne room just so you can come here dirty and stinky with the smell of patriotism, right!!!?"

Dia just looked at him with fear and awkwardness. She stayed silent.

"Listen - no one ain't gonna be treated fairly here. You are no exception - hell awaits you, princess."

Dia returned to the line. The instuctor quickly moved to the girl beside her.

"You!! What's with that smile?! Speak!!"

"Mari Ohara, sir!!"

"Oh?! I have heard a lot about you at the reports. You must be this Princess' rich friend. You also are the sole daughter of the Ohara family - that same family that makes 3D Maneuver Gears, right?!"

"Yes sir!!"

"You know how 3DMGs work right?"

"Well....the basics, sir!!"

"Can you use one right now?!"

"No sir."

"THEN YOU BETTER FUCKING LEARN HOW TO FLY WITH 3DMGS!! Let me tell you - using 3DMG is a requirement here!! No matter how good you are, if you can't wield those weapons, you are out immediately!!"

He shouted it all out loud. He wants all of us to know that being able to use a 3DMG is our only ticket of passing and becoming official trainees.

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(Hours after the assembly, at the dorms.)

After a rough introduction, I and the recruits retired back into our new dorms. I found a bedroom I could lie down on and settled down a bit.

Overhead, I could see Dia and Mari talking with much of my fellow recruits. I don't see Kanan anywhere.

So Princess Dia is here. I thought if I could gain or learn something by talking to her. I am uncertain, but I thought this is an opportunity I should not miss. I walked up to those two.

As I walked closer, I could hear how inquisitive the recruits are. Dia and Mari both seem to be superstars - well, anyone from Wall Suzuko would almost always be questioned and looked up to as classy individuals.

Finally, I managed to meet them personally for the first time.

"Hi...ummm...may ask you two something?"

"Sure. You're....", she asked calmly.

"I am Nico Yazawa. I wanna be a soldier so I can kill all the Alpacas."

"Oh!! Amazing! I joined the Military with a reason similar to you!!"

"Really?!"

"Yep!! As a member of the royal family, I thought it would be more meaningful in my life if I am a soldier fighting at the frontlines with everyone. My goal is to join the Love Live Corps."

"Whoa!! That is so cool!! I also want to be in the Corps!!"

"Amazing!! I hope we become great comrades then!!"

I did not expect that Dia can be so enthusiastic to talk to. I thought she seemed to be that sterotypical "proper lady" figure who speaks formally, with intonation, and class. Turns out she seems really nice.

Afterwards, I turned to Mari for a question.

"Hello...ummm. I am Nico Yazawa."

"You don't need to be so formal, little girl!! Just talk to us normally!"

"Okey...ummm...you know how 3DMGs work, right?"

"I only know basics since my family has not yet considered it important to inform me how it works in full details, especially after I stated my intention to join the Military."

"So....you came here because you wanna know more about 3DMGs?"

"I can DEFINITELY say I initially enrolled here for the sake of the family business. However, recent events and the kind of people that surround me in my life influenced me to come here with a desire to fight mankind's enemies!"

"That is how it should be. Soldiers are the only ones who can keep mankind alive. Anyone who says otherwise are total idiots.", I said.

I noticed so far that, besides discovering how friendly and similar both Dia and Mari are to me, much of my fellow trainees around me don't seem to appreciate what I say. I feel that they don't seem interested or excited when I talk about actually fighting Alpacas and doing things soldiers are supposed to do. I can't help but feel how dumb they are to think being a soldier can be all fun, games, and a way to uplift their status.

I noticed the other trainee, Kanan Matsuura, lying down on a bed all by herself at another room.

"Hey......your name is Kanan, right?"

"Oh? It's you again. Nico Yazawa, right?"

"Yeah."

"How have you been all these years?"

"Well...you know....trying to find a purpose in my life. Ever since I lost my dad then, I've been the sole resident of my house. It was really sad. Even though my fellow folks there helped me out, I still felt entirely useless. I did not know what job or life I wanted. I just.....I just waited for something to cross my mind...."

"Oh. Something like that happened to me all these years. I pretty much did hardly anything other than help my dad out and learn some things from him. I waited until I am now at the right age to come here."

"That makes total sense."

"Do you have an actual reason for comIng here?"

"Well...yeah, I do. I wanted to feel useful."

"Useful?"

"I wanna feel useful in this world. I want to feel important and worth something. I want to make my dad see me in the afterlife able to protect things like my village and perhaps mankind. I mean, I've seen what Alpacas are and how bad Expedition One was. I couldn't help but feel that I had to do something related to that."

"I see....I believe you made the right choice."

"Nico...."

"Being a soldier is the most useful job anyone can have today. Mankind needs soldiers. The more the better."

"The more the better? Hehe, I find that hard to believe..."

"If you choose not to believe then you are basically saying mankind will die without a fight."

"....yeah, you're right. Sorry for not thinking that through."

After a bit more talk, I decided to go to sleep and allow Kanan to rest. I feel excited to find myself here at a boot camp so I want to be as fit as I can be.

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Two days later, we are all summoned to take part in a test that the instructors described as our "entrance exam". It's our only true ticket to becoming true soldiers - the Three Dimensional Balancing Test.

The test sounded simple: we are going to be pulled up from the ground via ropes tied to two large wooden bars. The goal of the test is to check if any of us are capable of achieving the most basic requirement of anyone who will use a 3D Maneuver Gear: balance.

It's basic knowledge. When your feet is not touching the ground, you fall down. Using 3D Maneuver Gears meant you travel mid-air through 3D space. There, you will pretty much fall at any moment, so control is extremely essential. This struggle at physics is the reason why 3DMGs are so difficult to master or even use by anybody.

I know it will be hard too for me and my small body, but I ain't gonna quit so easily.

Instructor Kousaka prepared the training fields. Each of us recruits stepped one at a time at those fields. As to be expected, for the first day of balancing training, pretty much everyone failed - including me. All of us were either hitting our heads or dangling upside down at those contraptions.

Days passed where all we did was pretty much try to balance ourselves in those tests. The deadline was four days - if anyone else fails to balance after the fourth day, he/she will be dropped out of this Corps. I already saw some easily give up and dropped out voluntarily at the first and second days.

But damn it. Days passed yet I still kept failing. I tried all sorts of techniques but I kept dangling upside down. It is horrible!! I refuse to accept that my body is too small for something as simple as balancing!!

(My dad gave me advices on how to balance before I entered this Corps. However, he said that his advices don't always work. He also said that a person's body physique affects how people can balance in 3D space.)

My only option was to ask help from the other recruits. Apparantly, Kanan, Mari, and Dia all passed the test. I managed to ask them to help me out, but when I tried to practice their techniques, they did not work out for me.

I kept trying to practice all day even when the Instructor told me I am struggling too hard and might gain serious head wounds. I told him how far I am willing to go just to succeed this test.

I kept trying. I kept falling but I refused to back down. I kept practicing all by myself till the final day arrived.

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A/N: I hope this first passage interests you enough to follow the next chapters - the later ones specifically are gonna be great and action packed.

Next one should be up soon.