Chapter 20: Chapter Nineteen The Lessons Continue

Kiru groggily stirred as someone shook her slightly. It took her sleepy mind several moments to wake up, and she foggily took in the room. For a brief moment she was startled by the unfamiliar room, but then memories of the day before returned.

This was her new room, it was a cozy enough bunkroom that she shared with one of her classmates. The room was a bit bigger than her cell had been, and had a bunkbed on the one side of the room. On the other was a double wardrobe. There was also a desk placed against the rear wall, and a small table in the center of the room. It was a low table, with four cushions placed around it. A chest beneath it stored a number of games. Near the main door was a silver basket for dirty laundry.

On the wall with the wardrobe, was a side door. That door led to a small attached bathroom that was shared with a sister bunkroom. That was perfectly fine with Kiru though. A semi-private bath was already a luxury on most ships. A private bath was something only high-ranking officers might have. Kiru was glad she didn’t have to use a communal bath. As for the bathroom itself, it had a modest counter with two sinks, A single toilet, and to her surprise an actual bath. The bath was combined with the strange cleaning light she had encountered before. The sinks were rather similar to the one in her cell.

She looked up at May, who smiled. “Good Morning, Sister! Breakfast is in a few minutes, but you should have time to get ready.”

Kiru nodded, and slipped out from under the sheet. The cool air against her bare skin reminded her that she had slept nude, but so had May. May was already stepping towards the wardrobe. Kiru watched the equally nude biomech for a moment, and then made for the bathroom. She needed to pee, and she felt the need for a shower. Not that she could get one. The Solean equivalent was some kind of weird tingling light. At least it got the job done. Although part of her did want to try the tub out. It had been a long time since she had a good soak, but she did not have the time.

As May was opening the wardrobe, Kiru stepped into the bathroom. Where she caught her own appearance in the mirror. She froze, last night when she first explored the room, she had been too tired to pay attention. Now however, for the first time since her procedure, she was really looking. Reflected in the mirror was a naked Neku girl, one she could recognize, but she wasn’t the same. Kiru had been cute before, but now she was on another level. The same level as her classmates, the same level as May, who insisted on calling her sister. Her face had been subtly altered a little here, and a bit there. Blemishes were gone, small bits of fat had been moved. All the changes were small, but combined the effect was quite noticeable. She was absolutely stunning, and suddenly she understood why May kept calling her sister. If you got rid of the ears, and the tail, Kiru realized she would look a lot like the others. It didn’t help that they had similar figures, and heights.

The pressure in her bladder was what prompted her to move. Almost woodenly she made her way to the toilet while her mind worked to understand the changes. Heavily she sat down to pee, and asked the air, “How many other changes did you make to me, that I don’t know about?”

“A few, but they won’t remain unknown to you for long.”

Kiru leaned back, and was silent for a moment. The only sound to be heard was a stream of liquid splashing. She listened to it, as she considered her response. Finally she asked, “Are you going to tell me, or will I end up finding them on my own?”

“I plan to tell you as they become relevant. Although, I didn’t expect you to react negatively to a few minor cosmetic changes.” said Megumi as the stream ceased.

Kiru stood up, “You made me look like them!”

Megumi’s giggles came from the air, in response. “Is that what you think?” The giggles changed into a full blown laugh, “Actually it is the other way around. I merely enhanced what you already had.”

Kiru frowned, as she took care of cleaning her crotch, “What do you mean by that?”

“Your fellow classmates, I based their appearance templates off of you. I also used you to model a Neku appearance for all of them. I could have your roomie, May demonstrate that if you like.”

Kiru just stared at the wall for a moment. She had no idea what to say. A part of her couldn’t believe that she had not noticed their similarity to her. Then again, her mind had been rather occupied yesterday. Not to mention their similarity to each other was far more jarring to her. 

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Before she could really work that out, May came in. Saw her spacing out, and proceeded to help her into the combo tub. May said something, but it didn’t register for her. Her mind was too occupied to really pay attention. It wasn’t until May had helped her into her seat at the mess that she rebooted.

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Kiru slipped into the training room. Well gate room actually. Apparently there was something called a stargate, hidden somewhere in this room. A large arched device apparently capable of instant transit between any two of them. One of the reasons for this room being so large was so that it could be used as a staging area. Because of the size, the designers made the room multipurpose. Configurable for multiple roles, including training. Something that was quite brilliant, actually.

Already, she could see her fellow classmates settling into chairs at the briefing area. She joined them, quickly finding a seat near May. Kiru sat down, and tried not to really think about the fact that they all looked to be related to her. It was a bit surreal. Too much lately had been surreal. At least some things felt normal, and having a room was certainly an improvement to the cell. She actually slept well last night, and she still wanted to try the bath.

Thankfully Megumi started the pre-run briefing before too long. Giving her something to focus on and distract herself with. After everything that has happened lately, it really helped having something to distract herself with.

Megumi smiled, and pointed to a map behind her, “Alright girls. By now you should have started getting a handle on your abilities. Today’s course is a level two obstacle course. You should find it a little more challenging than yesterday. Since you are still getting used to your abilities, there will be no armed drones on the field, and no traps, Only obstacles. Unlike yesterday, there will be a time limit. You have two hours to complete the course. Also, the class that completes it the fastest will receive a reward.”

That sounded interesting. A bit of competition seemed popular as well. All her classmates seemed interested. It was certainly something better to focus on than what the Imperium had done to her, or what had more recently been done to her by the ship. Then again, much of what the ship had done to her, seemed to actually be beneficial. She was stronger, and faster. She didn’t know about being smarter, but she felt like she had been given the body of a super-soldier. The changes almost made her feel invulnerable. Almost. Especially after she learned how powerful her integrated personal shield was. Most starships didn’t have shields that strong. The ones that did belonged to Elder races. She really had been turned into a Neku tank. Now that she thought about it, she was surrounded by young girls with unmatched power, able to topple nations. If this ship wanted to, it could conquer the entirety of the Imperium. For the Imperium’s sake, she hoped that the ship would keep its word. Nothing else could keep this kind of power in check.

“Now you may be wondering what that reward is, but I would like to make it a surprise for you girls.”

There was a murmur of disappointment, and Kiru understood that too. She remembered back when she was first being trained, that the instructors liked to set up competition between classes as well. Sometimes they would announce prizes for being the best class, and other times they would keep them a surprise. Those competitions had been fun, and unlike more recent memories she didn’t have any odd gaps of that time. Just the normal blur of old memories. Nothing unusual was happening back then, the Imperium was still the Imperium then.

“None of that please. I need your full attention please. As I am only going to tell you this once,” openned Megumi as she launched into a description of the course they were about to run.

 Kiru glanced briefly at May, and wondered how often they would end up helping each other off the ground this time. Kiru wanted to see how well she could do today. In her hudd she noticed a frozen timer had appeared centered at the top of her vision. She figured that must be how long they had to complete this level two course, compared to yesterday’s level one. A part of her wondered how the difficulty of these courses was being graded. Yesterday’s course did not feel like a level one to her. Sure it hadn’t been too hard, but she had an enhanced body. Albeit one she was still getting used to. Another part of her wanted a bigger room to run in, as big as this one was, it felt too small to really get going. That might have been why Megumi required them to make a number of laps around the course. A course that would apparently change with each lap, and it wasn’t a small number of laps either.

Back when she was a cadet she would have balked at the number of laps she was expected to take. Hell, she would have balked at half the number on a smaller course. Kiru however found the number felt reasonable for her enhanced physiology. She just wondered if they would really be able to complete fifty laps in the time allotted. However there was no doubt in her mind that this would have been impossible for her just three days ago. Now, however? She really wanted to see if she could do it.

Eagerly she lined up with the others as soon as they had been briefed. When the signal came she took off running with the rest of the class. All she wanted to see was how far she could go. What she could really do. If there was one good thing about these classes, they were letting her get a feel for her abilities. A part of her could not wait to try out her fancy gear though. The cloak was intriguing, and she wanted to see what that plasma cannon that was mounted in her right arm could do as well. The ship had told her precious little about the weapon, and her systems wouldn’t either. She had already tried.  Multiple times to find something about what the weapon could do, but the system was locked down. It wasn’t the only thing she couldn’t touch though.

 Kiru put all of that out of her mind. Focusing instead on the course in front of her. Her feet carried her over the rough terrain created for the start of the course. Her eyes picked out the obstacles ahead of her. Nothing too hard yet.

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