Chase was walking through the grand hall of the coliseum. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't nervous, in fact his palms were extremely sweaty and he found himself constantly scratching at the rune on his shoulder.
Unlike the previous times he had visited the coliseum for practices: Today the halls were completely packed with people.
Fellow students, Teachers of nearly every class, and even parents of the players had crowded in large groups, sparking conversations here and there.
'I wonder if Dad is watching.'
He thought somberly, as he looked up at the small opening in the highest section of the walls, where the rays of the sunset were shining into the building.
As he walked to the locker room he felt plenty of harsh stares peeling into his skin.
Familiar faces had glared at him from behind the small merchant stands that lined the halls.
At that moment he remembered his duel with The Ivory Princess, and how he probably looked like he had just escaped the den of a Hollow.
Scattered across his arms were bruises and scars. Luckily they hid the phoenix emblem on his wrist pretty well, so he didn't have to stress about wearing long sleeves for the game.
It was especially great, because today The Pyrothar was burning with an intense heat, hot enough to probably cook an egg if you let it sit outside long enough.
Chase still hadn't even gotten to see his jersey, or even had an idea of what they looked like.
He finally reached the entrance at the end of the hall, and walked through.
Once he walked into the locker room several of his fellow classmates gave him terrible looks, as if they were planning on throwing the game away just to kill their own teammate.
'I wouldn't even be surprised at this point...'
He thought with a quiet sigh, as he walked over to his locker.
Suddenly, he felt a vein pop in his forehead as the locker he had been using was covered in paint.
There were plenty of harsh words painted onto his locker, but most of them were the cliche insult most people tended to throw at him anyway.
"Haha! Look guys, the Stray is gonna cry!"
One of the upperclassman named Landon, had yelled from one of the benches on the far side of the locker room.
Chase didn't even bother to look, and just decided to pry open the painted over locker.
'If this locker is supposed to be some sort of honor... Then why in the hell would they paint insults all over it?!'
He thought, as he tried to pry the door open from the corner just like Hans had done; however, Chase was not tall enough to even reach it, so he had to use his bag as a stool.
Even then, it still wouldn't budge.
A familiar presence was felt behind him, and he did not even need to look to know who it was.
"Need help?"
Hans asked. It was the first time Chase had heard The Panda speak in a normal matter, so it caught him off guard when the giant had a strange accent that sounded like the ones he had heard down south.
"Yes please..."
Chase said nervously, with defeat leaking from his voice.
Hans opened the locker effortlessly, and just gave him a short nod before turning to walk toward his own locker.
However, he stopped only a second later and spoke again.
"How did you do that earlier?"
Chase tilted his head in confusion.
"Do what?"
Hans sighed, and turned to face him. He had to look up to meet the giant in the eyes, which was quite awkward.
"When you fought the princess, how did you keep up?"
Chase thought for a moment, and then just shrugged.
"I don't know, I guess her moves were predictable."
Hans then did the most out of character thing he had ever done.
He let out a laugh.
"Yeah right!"
He said, as he turned around and made his way back toward his locker.
Chase raised an eyebrow but decided it was best not to question the man they called The Panda, and just went back to gathering his things from his locker.
He walked over to one of the few private changing rooms, and stepped inside locking the door behind him.
...
After changing into the black and orange jersey that he hadn't even bothered to take a look at yet, he stood with his back to the mirror of the changing room.
With a deep breath, he turned around to finally get a look at the academy's aetherball uniforms.
'Woah...'
Over his chest, he wore a sleeveless jersey that was made of a strong, yet flexible material. It was mainly a black as dark as pitch, but faint glowing runes, and lining covered the jersey from collar all the way to the bottom of the knee high shorts.
The emblem of a powerful phoenix was engraved into the chest area of the jersey, with intricate patterns surrounding it.
He turned slightly, revealing the glowing number that was marked on the back of his jersey.
The number: Twenty-four, was glowing softly in the dim light of the changing room.
He tugged on the shoulder part of the jersey, and let out a grateful sigh.
"At least it's not as uncomfortable as the training ones."
He mumbled quietly.
He picked up his padding and began to strap them onto the appropriate parts of his body.
Black shoulder pads that were quite flimsy, but still offered quite a lot protection. He strapped the elbow guards on, and then the shin guards.
Finally he tightly pulled the strap of the fingerless gloves he had been given, that matched well with the colors of the jersey.
They had padding in the knuckle areas, and the palms even had some sort of grippy material infused with what Chase had guessed was some sort of carbonite alloy.
Lastly, he picked up the gladiator-styled helmet, and gently squeezed it over his head, not knowing that he could just untie the bottom of the helmet to put it on easier.
Well, that was a lie. The truth was that he did not know how to tie knots, or even shoe laces. So, he had to resort to painfully struggling to put the helmet on, but eventually it was equipped onto his head.
He looked up slowly, and as his self came into view on the mirror, his eyes widened.
The helmet had a vibrant twenty-four engraved into one side of the helmet, and a phoenix outstretching its wings on the other.
'Alright, that's kinda cool.'
He thought, with a slight grin creeping at the corners of his lips.
Suddenly, a loud bell rang from the main area of the locker room, and that could only mean that it was time for the pregame team meeting.
With a deep breath Chase exited the locker room, with a newfound confidence that he wasn't excepting to gain from some uniform that hadn't been worn in decades.