North Winds Fall (Xianxia - Survive the Protagonist)

"Setsu Shūsui" she said. It was a thin cover, it couldn't be too hard to find variant names if someone from North Winds wanted to hunt her down, but she hoped the locals wouldn't care.

"Your sister?" asked the Lieutenant.

"Setsu Wei"

Wei was particularly short for ten years old, almost a foot shorter than her, but the Lieutenant was almost a foot taller than her.

She crouched down to talk to Wei, face to face.

"Don't be afraid. According to the Selective Service law, all arriving girls between 10 and 22 years old must be tested for the Path. If you have potential to be a Pathist, or have already taken your first steps, you are enlisted in the girls army until the day you turn 22. You will be assigned to one of the seven Girl's Army bases, and begin your training and placement. Otherwise, you are free to travel. We will provide help if your older sister has to go away, Wei."

This was horrible! Autumn thought to herself. If she'd known she'd be separated from Wei, it would have been better to try to survive back home, or even travel south.

She looked closely as the Lieutenant used a tiny machine which wrapped around Wei's pinky finger.

After a moment, the machine made a DING sound.

"Welcome Pathist. You have reached the very first step, within the past week or two?" the Lieutenant said, smiling. Go stand with the other girls while I test your sister."

"Sorry I didn't tell you, sisy. During the battle, when they made me go into the arena, I made it to First Grade. I really wanted to make momma and you proud."

Her sister was already a cultivator, at 10. Autumn hadn't started until she was 11. She hoped that they would be assigned to the same base at least.

The Lieutenant moved on to testing her. The tool wrapped around her pinkie was hot, and then cold, and then tingly.

"I'm getting inconsistent readings from you. My guess is you are mid-2nd step. There's signs of extensive injuries in your path. I will make sure that you are both assigned to the same base. Momo! take Shūsui to the Pathist Doctor right away. Kohaku, take Wei to the new girls dorm."

As long as they could be together, it was ok. Hopefully Wei would find some friends her own age too.

"Wei, you're stronger than I was at 10. You'll be fine." Autumn said to her.

"Be all healthy and strong real soon sisy!" Wei said to her as they parted.

She had toughed her way through any bruisers and scrapes she got during Club days, but one time she did have to go to the doc and explain away what was going on. Few people back home chose to cultivate healing as part of their way, but those who did were rare and precious people.

They passed groups of girls standing and groups marching, as well as one building where she had seen a few men dressed in uniform go into. The base was a series of huts and tiny buildings as well as long but narrow halls, but the Doc's building was quite large compared to the others.

"Doctor Uyehara, I've got a patient for you," the girl Momo, said to the doc as they came in. He was an older man wearing glasses and white robes.

At two of the tables around the room, girls were sitting with their legs dangling down. Other girls appeared to be the Doctor's assistants, attending to the patients.

"Go ahead and sit here," said one of the assistants.

The girl placed her hand on Autumn's knee, and closed her eyes, which she thought was weird.

After an awkward minute or two, she spoke up, "Extensive Path injuries. You were nearing the mid-Third step, and the injuries have brought you back to Mid-second step. You should be able to recover, but Doctor Uyehara needs to provide his expertise first."

The doctor was already standing beside his assistant, and he wrapped his fingers around her nose, as if he was trying to stop a nosebleed. This was weird healing! Was the Doc and all the assistants, specialized healing cultivators?

Each assistant wore a black cap clean white shirts with a small badge where they hand-wrote their names. The Doc had a fancy blue cap and his badge was shinier.

"She needs a specialized training plan in conjunction with normal army training. She's already had battle training, but not regimented. She needs discipline, daily medicinals and some daily moments of happiness. It's not only direct damage to her path, but also emotional damage. Miss Shūsui has been so busy, she hasn't been able to process everything yet. Daily activities will be good, but you need a safe place to reflect. Is there anyone who came here with you?"

"My sister. She just told me she reached the first step of her path, using your terms. We used the term Cultivation and Grades, instead of Path and Steps," she said.

"I'm prescribing daily time with your sister, let's just hope your commanding officer respects that. Every morning you must take your Path vitamins, and recovery solution. I will coordinate with Staffing to ensure they get to your assigned hall."

She hoped everyone in West Winds would be so understanding, but it seemed unlikely.

Momo led her to the new girls hall. "Don't let your guard down around the senior officers. Even the top Extended service girls aren't on our side."

Momo left it at that, and Autumn went into the door. It was a long but narrow hall, with double height bunks on the left, and the right.

It was almost empty, but it was still mid-day. Wei had ended up taking a bunk next to the only other girl in the hall.

The weird thing was, Wei was talking excitedly with the new girl, who looked several years older than Wei, maybe 14 or 15?

"I was away for four months with my Aunt and Uncle. After the funeral, HQ said they would give me that time and then reassign me for initial training again, since my physical and path scores were so low. Isn't it obvious that I'd do best as an Admin type Pathist? My school grades are top level! But they want me to go through combat school again."

Wei was sitting on the edge of the lower bunk, facing the other girl. "My oldest brother and second brother were Admin type. I want to learn to protect my friends though. Shūsui was a rebel for being the only girl in the family to try Fighting type."

"You've got a weird family, Wei. I had to practice stances and fighting with my brother every morning. He was mean! I've never heard much about the North. It's really cold, I hear."

"In winter," Wei said.

"Sorry, I just showed up Wei, I didn't mean to overhear," Autumn said, as she approached the two.

"Are you going to be ok?" Wei asked.

"I've got to take some different vitamins and drink something awful every morning. Doctor Uyehara said he was going to send the medicines to wherever we end up being. I guess this way, we don't have to find somewhere to live."

"Shūsui, this is my new friend Kazumi. Kazumi this my sister Shūsui."

"Nice to meet you," Autumn said bowing. She was sheepish as she realized she was bowing as a member of the imperial family bows to a lesser. "Oh sorry, I need to learn to be a West Winds person now."

"You should get some rest, sisy. I left you the top bunk. Kazumi said the dispatcher will be along later this evening."

It was easy to fall asleep, even on the hard top bunk bed. She really was tired. She continued to hear the two girls speaking softly, but it was just like the wind, she slept through it.

Finally, Wei woke her up. "The dispatcher is here."

A woman in her mid twenties was sitting on a bunk several rows down, talking with Kazumi.

Finally Kazumi came back over to her own bunk.

"Setsu Shūsui," said the woman, presumably the dispatcher.

She walked over to her and sat at the next bunk.

"Shūsui, what kind of military background or pre-training have you received?"

"I practiced individually and trained in one on one weapon martial arts with a group. My focus has been on the Dao blade. I've faced some real world fighting recently."

"Would you say you've lacked in group, army type training?" the dispatcher asked.

"Definitely. I don't really know anything beyond a small group. I had a little bit of small unit practice."

"Confirming Wei's answers, what family members or other resources do you have access to in the West Winds?"

"We don't have any family here, or close friends."

The dispatcher paused for a moment, writing down several sentences, before continuing. "The Cherry Blossom Girl's Army Base is focused on early training, as it is located in the Central Eastern part of our nation. This part of our nation's border is connected to neither the North Winds borders nor South Winds, but only the wastelands, so there is less concern with active defense in that region.

You will be formed into a reasonable fighting group, and sorted in platoons according to your overall scores in Path, Fighting Prowess, Schoolwork and Discipline. Girls with family in their local area will reside at home, so you will be one of the only girls in your platoon staying overnight during the week.

Every Friday night, Saturday all-day and Sunday half-day will be devoted to Girl's army bootcamp, and training exercises later. You will operate as one unit with your platoon mates. The platoons at Cherry Blossom Girl's Army Base are numbered from One to Twenty-Five. 3rd Privates Wei and Kazumi will be in Platoon One.

From Sunday through Thursday, you will go to school. Upon arrival at the Cherry Blossom Girl's Army Base, you will be given a Pre-assessment exam. It is normal for foreign students to struggle with our standards of schoolwork, but if you apply yourself and work hard, you can advance, in every area that the West Winds Girl's Army expects its girls to excel in.

If your medical problems are resolved, you may reach as high then Platoon Ten, but for now, you are being placed in Platoon Four. Your rank will be Private, 2nd class. You will bow and salute your superiors as trained by your Platoon's drill instructor.

As you have no family financial support, we require that you sign up for one of the following positions on the Base."


Vote for Part Time Work / Service:

[ ] Combat Training Facility

You will have to clean all of the fighting rings, training and workout rooms and the rest of the Combat Training Facility, except bathrooms and cooking areas. Report any damaged and inoperative equipment

[ ] Archery Grounds Maintenance

You will have to maintain the Archery grounds, replacing damaged Bullseyes, recovering arrows, and cleaning up Archery firing positions. You will have to replace lost arrows and training bows in the storage closets, and acquire new materials from the Supply chief.


[ ] Cook Crew

Help to prepare meals, as well as clean up after meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. You will also be involved in restocking the cupboards.


[ ] School & Library Assistant

Clean up chalkboards, straighten desks, throw away junk on the floor. The Heavy cleaning will be done by the janitors but you need to do the simple pick-up work. Take items to the lost and found. Help to put away books, pick up and clean up the Library as well.