Chapter 68| Suit Fitting

Chapter 68: Chapter 68| Suit Fitting

The Aldren Academy official blog updated at 6:00 AM.

Zane checked it on his communicator before he’d fully sat up in bed. Instructor Mori’s individual fitting appointments, posted overnight. Slots were assigned by student registration number.

His slot was scheduled at 2:00 PM. Individual fitting. With a statement under bring your hero name for submission if finalised advisably.

He looked at the last line for a moment.

’If finalised,’ he thought.

He put the communicator face down and got up.

He got to his first destination which was the training ground at exactly 6:20 AM at stopped at his usual Same corner.

Maren was already there. Her usual fitted training gear doing justice to her slim curves. Hair tied back. Running her pre-session stretches with the focused efficiency that had become simply the baseline of what 6:20 AM looked like.

They both waved at each other.

Zane dropped his bag. Moved to the wall.

Pressed his palm flat. Impact Breaker at 65%. 0.79 seconds. Just doing his usual routine.

The shockwave rolled through the composite surface. Clean. Controlled.

He started his reps and thought about the appointment list and four words that had been sitting in his notebook for two weeks.

’They’ve been there the whole time,’ he thought. ’Dex might’ve read them. Ryan read them. The page has been sitting there since week three.’

’I just haven’t submitted them yet,’ he thought.

’Because submitting them makes it real,’ he thought. ’And real means the NSA sees it. And the NSA seeing a hero name means they want the classification assessment to match it.’

He pressed his palm flat again.

’Which it already has,’ he thought. ’Eight days. Different deadline. Same problem.’

He finished his reps.

『 Daily Training Quest — Complete 』

Maren was sitting on the pad when he turned around. Water break. Cross legged. Looking at her communicator.

He walked over and sat beside her.

She glanced up briefly.

"You know Mori’s list is up," he said.

"I saw," she said. "1:00 PM for me."

"2:00 PM for me," Zane said.

She nodded. Went back to her communicator.

"You submitting your name today," he said.

She looked at him.

"If it’s finalised," she said. The same words from the appointment list. Said with the specific tone of someone who had decided something and was comfortable with the decision.

"Is it," Zane said.

She looked at him for a long moment.

Then..."Yes."

’She finalised it,’ he thought. ’Sitting there cross legged on the pad at 6:20 AM she’s already done with the part I’ve been stuck on for days if not weeks.’

"You’re not going to tell me what it is," he said.

"No," she said."Not now, not that I don’t want to".

"Fair," he said.

She almost smiled. Went back to her drill.

He went back to the wall and thought about the four words he had deciphered together, silently brainstorming for the perfect alias. Because they say ’A strong alias creates A strong hero".

The morning session ran its usual rhythm.

Theory. Notes. The classroom filling and emptying. Maren beside him in the new seating arrangement that had stopped being new by the second day and had become simply where they sat now.

At the break she slid a page across to him.

He looked at it.

Her hero name submission form. Filled out. Clean. The name visible in her handwriting in the designated field.

He read it.

Stellar Blitz.

Looked at her.

She was looking at the front of the room.

’That’s it,’ he thought. ’Stellar Blitz. Speed and precision with something above it. Something that suggested the ceiling hadn’t been reached yet. Exactly Maren.’

"It fits," he said.

She glanced at him.

"Thanks for the nice feedback," she said simply.

"You deserve it," Zane said. "And by the way the name is as cute as you."

She looked at him.

"Zane." A pause. "Stop flattering me."

Her face was already going pink. The specific pink that had been making appearances since the infirmary and the dormitory gate and showed no signs of stopping.

She took the form back. Filed it in her bag. Went back to looking at the front of the room like that had been a completely normal exchange but it exactly wasn’t to her.

The system surfaced.

『 Maren — Familiarity +2% 』

『 Proximity Quest Bonus applied: +5% 』

『 Current Familiarity: 63% — Acquaintance tier 』

『 System Note: Flattery delivered naturally in context counts. The system approves. 』

’The system approves,’ Zane thought.

『 Genuinely. That was smooth. 』

’Don’t make it weird,’ Zane thought.

『 The system is simply acknowledging progress. 』

He looked at his own notebook.

Four words.

Then took his pen and wrote the final name underneath them. One clean line. The thing the four words had been pointing toward since the first one appeared on the page.

He looked at it.

’That’s it,’ he thought.

The system surfaced.

『 Hero identity confirmed as self-determined. The system has no further comment. 』

’You said that already,’ Zane thought.

『 It bears repeating at the right moment. This is the right moment. 』

1:55 PM.

Zane stood outside Instructor Mori’s office with his notebook in his hand.

The corridor was empty. His slot was the last individual appointment of the afternoon block. Inside he could hear Mori moving around. The faint sound of measuring equipment. The specific quiet of someone who worked with precision and had made peace with the silence it required.

He knocked.

"Come in."

He came in.

The office was the same as the first visit. Everything in its place, measuring tape, tablet, fabric samples along the left wall. Except today there was something new on the side table.

A display stand.

And on it. A suit.

Not finished. A preliminary construction — the shape of it, the material laid out, the structural elements in place without the final details. But recognisable as a suit built for a specific person with a specific combat style.

Zane stopped inside the door.

Looked at it.

Dark charcoal. Narrow contrast lines running along the forearm sections and across the shoulders. Fitted at the torso. Reinforced at the contact points. Both palms, both forearms, the leading edges of the shoulders. The kind of reinforcement that said close range output without needing a label.

’That’s mine,’ he thought.

’That’s more than I expected,’ he thought.

Something settled in his chest that hadn’t been there before. The specific feeling of something abstract becoming real in a way that changed how it sat in the body.

Mori looked up from her tablet.