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Chapter 11, part 1: Battle of Respects

Two weeks have passed since Azure's first assignment. He's been working out, practicing fighting styles, and sword combat day in and day out to improve himself to earn the J.D leader title. He spends his free time when not with Liorra, studying war generals, strategies, and leaders in history in increase battle knowledge. He talks to Mr. EDDD after class to gain better knowledge on passing the recent J.D assignments and written test, building up his class status throughout the time. Constantly improving his skill for the better. Azure feels confident for the end of course results, judging who'll be the 4 J.D leaders of his class.

One more week.

"You know, Liorra I understand you'd rather work with me on a squad and all, but your name definitely could be higher on this list if you tried higher." I scold Liorra, staring at the class standings chart. These class standings are based off our individual class ranks throughout the assignments these past two weeks.

Out of 20 students Liorra is ranked 14th, which is appears as a huge regression from her J.D tryouts ranking. However, her #9 rank in tryouts is no fluke. Once I saw her sword skills from the last week's assignment I knew she's the real deal for sure. The last assignment was similar to the first, except we used Bokken to test our weapon combat skill.

"Zuzu shut up! I realistically could be top 10 if I wanted. Be surprised I'm not last place. Especially since I skipped first assignment." Liorra says in a confident, but sassy tone. She's right though, and hasn't done anything for me to regret having her on my squad. Leader or not she has my trust. She isn't humble to me about it, but I respect it. "Let's talk about how you're ranked 2nd behind you know who. Hehehe!" her little giggles quickly turns into her burst out laughing.  She just loves to annoy me. Thinking about being second to him always aggravates me.

I haven't just been training and studying these past two weeks. I've made sure that I get a good read of the students in this class, so I've been interacting with most of my classmates.

Looking to my left I see someone enter the class, "Azure what's up bro!" that's Mike Wilder, ranked 8th in class, and is ranked 22nd in the tryouts. He lives in dorm room 2-02 which is in my hallway. He's a humble guy, giant like too since he's 6 foot 4 inches at 15! His hand to hand combat skills are solid, but anything revolving around ordnance and weapon use in general, is where I see he struggles the most. His Pye ability increases his base strength with multipliers. However, he's only able to multiply by 4 times. Multiplying it more than he can handle could possibly kill him. I assume that because him multiplying his power by 4 alone will admit steam from his body, slowly burning his muscles. That kind of death must be agonizing, so he trains his Pye and strength more than anything to be able to heighten his multipliers.

"Hey Mike! Hope you're working on your speed like I recommended." He isn't slow, but he's definitely not fast. With his combat skills Pye ability, and speed training I've recommended to him he'd be a great fit on my team. Due to my help and suggestions I've gained his respect along the way.

A good leader will expect respect, while a great leader earns respect.

If. No, when I become a squad leader, I'm going to earn everyone's respect. Even Jaheim and Cole. I've been brainstorming and making Cole my ally instead of continuing this beef we have, would be great for how I plan to build my team.

"Liorra I've decide to be mature about things, and squash things with Cole." Hating to admit it to Liorra, I scratch my chin uncomfortably saying that. I've thought of me connecting with Cole for a few days now. We bud heads and ideals a lot, but I'm growing to respect his determination and abilities.