Our third week at this school. It was getting a little repetitive for me. Outside of school no one ever wanted to play or talk with me, so I spent my time in solitude.

Just as I'd guessed, Yukina and me began drifting apart. She was spending more time with the girls and living the riajuu lifestyle. The guys that I usually hang out with were way more social than me. Mitsuba and Yukimura had became good friends and went outside often to hang out.

Akihiro and Kawaguchi's shared passion of Vanguard meant that they spent almost everyday in class playing together. Nora was my closest male companion, but unlike me, he actually preferred being lonely due to his introverted nature. We both weren't big on talking either, so our conversations turned stale with awkward air.

Matsushita was extremely out of my reach. He's too damn popular for a guy like me to play with.

Overall, I had failed to change myself even a little. My life had become a loop of spending time in class, going home to surf the net, then finally sleeping for the night. I was too timid to ask anyone if they wanted to hang out, and I didn't feel like spicing my life up by doing something I was uncomfortable with.

Even so... I couldn't call my current situation pleasant.

It was homeroom time. Chabashira-sensei entered and her face seemed more serious than usual today.

"Shizuka-chan-sensei, are you on your period?" Mitsuba said.

Slowly each day, I get more images of him overlapping Mitsuba. This isn't good at all.

Chabashira-sensei simply ignored Mitsuba's crude comment, and silenced the class by slamming her tablet against the podium. Setting the device onto it, she began speaking to us.

"I presume you've enjoyed your first two weeks here at GEN Academy."

"I think everyone can agree that we've loved it so far." Matsushita said. Lots of heads nodded in agreement.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." Chabashira-sensei's tone of voice was still robotic. I wondered if she ever showed emotions. "Now, it's time for us to introduce the special compulsory course offered here at this school."

That's right. The one course we've yet to do but was promised on the information booklets. Akihiro and Kawaguchi were in high spirits hearing those words.

"You, 1st Year E Class, will be going to war with 3rd Year A Class."

The class began to break into a soft murmur. The mood in the air turned uncertain and restless.

"Don't look so afraid. Wars between nations and classes are a regular occurrence here at this school. This is known as War Time, and it is an assessment that evaluates everything about you and measures your overall abilities due to it's complex nature. War Time happens after normal classes are finished. Do you all have your visors and decks with you?"

During the weekend, an email went out instructing us to bring these items today, which was probably the school's way of hinting at us that we'd finally be thrust into War Time. Thankfully, no one forgot.

"Great. Now, follow me, class. We're going to the War Preparation Room so I can explain what will happen today after school."

As a class, we left to the War Preparation Room. Akihiro and Kawaguchi were the most ecstatic about it, while the rest of us seemed quite bored or disinterested. I was walking at the back of the line, taking my time since we weren't in a hurry. In front of me was Yukina.

I argued with myself on whether I should call out to her or not. I still consider her a friend, even if we didn't talk as much.

I gathered up all my courage and choked my words out of my tight throat. "What do you think War Time will be like?"

"It sounds exciting. We'll be up against our senpai, playing Vanguard. Isn't that great?"

"Yeah... it sounds difficult, though."

"I'm sure we'll handle it just fine."

Ah... I was able to hold a normal conversation with Yukina. Maybe I'm not as much of a loser as I thought I was.

We had travelled a great distance to the special wing of the school. Chabashira-sensei unlocked a room using her key card, and we entered inside the room that was made of pure white.

Everything here was clean and sparkling. It was the most pure looking room in this school... no, this entire island, I've ever seen. The rest of my classmates were just as shocked as I was seeing this beautiful room be referred to as the War Preparation Room.

"Please, take a seat." Chabashira-sensei said.

We scrambled around a long table made of clear glass and sat down. I was sandwiched in between Yukina and Akihiro.

"This is the War Preparation Room. As you can see, the school prides itself in both the quality of this room and the corresponding special course. No other school offers a service like this, so consider yourselves special. Now, let me explain to you what War Time is. After school between the hours of 3pm and 5pm, you, 1st Year E Class, will be going to war with the 3rd Year A Class. The winning class of the war will get a reward."

Chabashira-sensei was handing us booklets with information regarding War Time. I opened it up and began skimming the pages whilst she talked.

"Wars in GEN Academy take place on the island. You will play Vanguard against your opponents as a means of eliminating them. The war is won when the objective is achieved, or when time runs out and the class with the most victories wins. However, each war can have a different objective or victory condition, so make sure to double-check what it is. You get two hours to fight in the war, and when time runs out the war ends immediately. Before the war happens, we will designate you a sector where all fights must take place in, as to not disturb the normal lives of those on campus. In addition, during War Time, we shall use these V Visors." Chabashira-sensei took out her visor and placed it in her ear. "V Visors are the most integral part of War Time and is how we can get the war to function."

I turned to the page in my guide explaining V Visors.

"To put it simply, the visors are what those who are participating in the war wears as a way to identify you are currently in a war. I have disabled the visor lock in this room, so you should be able to turn it on. Like this." She pressed a button on the top part of her ear-piece. A see-through red visor materialised from it, and overlaid her eyes. "The visor's colour represents your nation, so you won't get confused on who is an enemy and who is an ally. On your visors is a microphone and earphone, so you can communicate with your classmates while in the war. To use the visor, it is voice commands and hand gestures. A list of them should be in your handbook."

I placed my visor in my ear and turned it on. While I expected to see everything through red-dyed lenses, everything actually retained it's normal colour palette. What impressive technology.

Next to me, Akihiro began waving his hands. While nothing appeared in front of him, from what I could see, he was clicking the air mysteriously. I looked at him confused, but decided to try it out for myself.

I waved my hand, and to my surprise, an interface came up. It seems you could only see your own through your visor. That would explain why I couldn't see anything in front of Akihiro when he started tapping on it.

The interface had a few menu and other options. A lot of the information in the visor was blank at first, but slowly was automatically being filled in without my input.

"You can only activate your visor during War Time, where the locks are disabled. Of course, you can only use these visors in the designated war area. Any other time it won't work, so don't even try it. After all, if you break or lose your visor, you cannot participate on the war. Is that clear?"

With that threat, the class nodded altogether.

"Good. In war, there are three statuses. Alive, dead and injured. You are alive when you exit a war without losing. You are injured when the war ends mid-way through your battle. You are dead when you lose a Cardfight. When that happens, your visor will turn off automatically, signalling you are dead and no longer participating. When you die, you are to immediately return to the preparation room and watch from here." Chabashira-sensei pointed at the large screens behind her.

"Wait... does this mean our war is being recorded?" Matsushita asked.

"Indeed. Wars that happen in the school will be recorded and broadcasted in the War Prep Rooms live. When a student dies, their visor will not turn on afterwards. This means you cannot participate in any following wars if you are dead."

My classmates looked in horror at that harsh rule. Losing once had some serious repercussions.

"Don't worry. It doesn't mean you can't participate in wars for the rest of your student life. Your statuses get reset in the next semester, so you'll be able to turn it back on then. So even if you die in this war, there's always next semester to try again. As a word of warning though, taking off your visor while you're alive and in a war can incur a massive penalty. Usually, it's a warning the first time, so if you accidentally take it off, you have a grace period to fix it back on. But, if you take it off for good, you'll die in the war. Oh, and this should be a given, but trying to take another student's visor off is against the rules. Doing so will incur in a very harsh punishment."

Chabashira-sensei then disabled her visor. "Since we're done on the section about visors for now, please turn them off and take them out of your ears, as I will be reenabling the locks now."

I took off my visor and placed it on the table. Chabashira-sensei waited for everyone to be done before tapping on her tablet a couple times. Setting it down on the desk, she began walking up and down the room.

"Before the war, our class shall meet in the War Preparation Room so I, your homeroom teacher, can tell you about the upcoming war. This will include details on your objectives, designated war areas, and overall preparation for the war. You see, to ensure no cheating happens during War Time, we do not play with physical cards. You will place your deck, along with your visor information, into this machine."

Chabashira-sensei pointed at a large machine embedded into the wall.

"The machine will scan and input your deck into the visor. Then, when you fight in the war, your visor will project a board and your deck of cards, so everything will go smoothly without human error. These are merely holograms that you can only view with the visor, but due to it's advanced immersive technology, it will feel like you're playing with the real thing. As such, the visors do everything almost automatically for you, such as shuffling."

The more I learnt about these visors, the more vital and impressive they seemed to become. The school had out-did itself once again, all for the sake of it's students.

"In wars, the visors will automatically make challenges for you. You can decline if you wish, but these retreats are limited options and can only happen under certain circumstances. You can also manually challenge your opponents, but the opponents will always have the option to decline, so it's best to let your visor automatically do it for you. You'll understand this better when you see it in action. Don't be afraid of automatic challenges, because the visor have their own sensing radius and such. If you get away from others, you won't be able to fight as a result. It's because the two visors connecting with each other that the challenge is automatically made. The most sure-fire way to do this is to have you and your opponent meet eye to eye. When you see each other, the visor will activate."

Chabashira-sensei returned to the front of the room.

"This room during War Time will be used by the homeroom teachers to assist the class in the war, giving instructions and such. I will use my visor to communicate with you. There is also the option to have a commanding student be in here with me, where they will not fight in the war, but instead be giving instructions and conducting strategies. Of course, you can plan all this beforehand. After all..."

Chabashira-sensei gently tapped on the glass table. Immediately, it sprang to life with bright colours, and lots of screens began popping up.

"This is the time for me to explain what is going to actually happen in this war against 3rd Year A Class. The war will take place in the academy itself. You can play Vanguard anywhere, as long as it's inside school grounds. As it is the first war of this year, this war shall be broadcasted on TV and streaming platforms live. After all, wars are a spectacle and treat for everyone else to enjoy. The objective in this war is to kill the other class's "King". Essentially, you just have to beat the chosen "King" of the class in a Cardfight."

Appearing on the table was a screen which popped into a hologram.

"This is Mikazuchi Kaido-san. He has offered to be the one you all need to beat in this war. As such, A Class has the same objective as you guys, and will also be trying to kill our class's King. For this, I have already nominated Matsushita-san for this job."

Everyone looked at Matsushita who seemed surprised that he was picked. Well, considering he was pretty much the male class representative of E Class, this made sense.

I opened a screen on the table that had some information about Mikazuchi. He must have been Mikazuchi-sensei's son, since their family names were the same and their faces were similar. The information given was that he used Granblue and was a former Ace. This much I was aware of.

"Everyone, you have the rest of this lesson to plan out a strategy of what you're going to do in the war. While doing so, please take turns in uploading your deck file to your visor in the machine. I will assist you if necessary." Chabashira-sensei said. "Matsushita-san, as you're King, please take responsibility and lead the class."

Matsushita gulped, letting the gratification of what had happened sink in. I almost felt bad for him. But, being the ikemen he was, he quickly adapted and began talking to us all with passion.

This war was all about killing the King. I wonder what strategy we could use to beat the other class.