“Good morning!” she cheered. “You don’t want to be late for your first day of school, do you!?”

Max groaned and rubbed his head.

After the events of last night, he’d actually forgotten that today was the first day of the climber academy term. Today was the day he’d been training towards for the last month.

He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready.

Forty-five minutes later, Sakura and him were standing in front of the climber academy.

The structure was a large red brick building with a clock tower. A serene courtyard lay in front of it.

So this was it, thought Max. The Climber Academy.

“Are you excited for your first day?” asked Sakura.

“About that,” said Max. “I can probably take it from here. So maybe see you later tonight?”

Sakura’s eyebrow twitched. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Are you embarrassed of me? What—are you worried people might think your mom walks you to school?”

Max blushed. “...Maybe.”

Sakura got red in the face, clearly annoyed. “I’m not that old! Gah! Maybe they might think you have an older hot girlfriend? Did you ever think of that, huh? The youth of today know no manners, do they? I was going to give you a cameo in my future romance novel, but you just got yourself cut, mister.”

“Uhh...”

Max scratched the back of his head. He really didn’t know what to say here.

Sakura sighed and composed herself.

“Oh, I got you a present. Not that you deserve it any more,” she said, rummaging in her pocket. She pulled out a small brown pouch. She handed it to him.

“Thanks,” said Max. “What is it?”

“It’s a special pouch,” said Sakura. “All climbers wear them. Think of it like an inventory in a video game. It’s not very large as it’s only a beginner’s pouch. I recommend not putting anything insanely big in there like a truck, but you should be just fine storing a good number of monster cores and other materials in there.”

“Oh, wow, thanks,” said Max, tying the pouch to his belt.

“Don’t mention it,” said Sakura. “Seriously though, don’t get clever with the pouch or you’ll break it. So don’t try and fill it with water or anything crazy. Alright, I think that’s it. Good luck today, Max. I can’t wait to hear how it goes.”

With that, Sakura strutted off to work at the defense climber headquarters.

Max watched her go and then turned to the courtyard.

First day of school, he thought. Here we go.

He walked through the gates and entered the courtyard.

A mass of teenagers loitered outside the doors.

Max ignored them and headed towards the entrance of the school.