I stay staring at the screen for a good 5 minutes, and I manage to figure out things slightly. At the top, it has something called a Charge meter, and it seems like it could go up to 50 charges. Then, below it, it has skills. Skills cost charge, and the more charge I have, the better ability's it looks like I can do. Then there are passives. 1st is called Sor protection, the 2nd one is Radiant overflow. I let out a sigh.

  “I wish they would at least give me descriptions on what they do...”

  I’m about to go roll over and fall asleep for the first night in a long time without the feeling above my shoulder. But I can’t have anything to go as I receive a message from Charlotte.

  “Come behind building R-4. Do not keep me waiting or I will make your life a living hell, and come alone.”

  I let out a sigh. I’m just annoyed at this point. What does this girl have against me? I’ll I did was look into the girl's cafeteria, now she wants to be my mortal enemy.

  “Fine.”

  I push myself out of my bed, slip on some shoes, and head out of my dorm. The hallways are empty. These are better beds than Germany, so I guess everyone is tired. But I make the way out of the D dorm room building, and after a short walk across the Academy, I reach the R buildings.

  “R-4... R-4...”

  “It’s right here, are you blind?”

  I grimace at the sound of the voice, and I turn to see Charlotte with the moon and with the 2 girls at her back.

  “I thought you said to come alone, does that do not apply to you?” I ask, wondering why I was brought here, ready to run or fight if needed. My Sor Disc seems ready, almost like it can feel what I’m thinking.

  “Honestly, they just followed me, just like you will!”

  I see she puts out her hand, and energy flows over me. I start to feel my eyes gze over, but then my Sor Disc suddenly sms into my head, forming a golden cradle for my head, the metal wrapping around my head like a warping helmet. It washes away whatever the effect that was starting to take over me.

  I see Charlotte's eyes widen in shock, and her 2 followers show no emotions, but I now first notice their eyes look gzed over with bluish-grey energy. My SENTRY also pops up with a notification.

  “Sor Protection activated.”

  There is so much to take in, but I don’t want to attack right now. I’ve seen the aftermath of what my Disc can do—I don’t want anyone to be killed.

  “Hey, what was that?! What were you trying to do?!” I say as the Disc pulls from my face and back into an actual disc shape, back to orbiting around me.

  She clicks her tongue.

  “Tch— I know why I wasn’t able to before, but what in the world is this kind of power?!” she yells, dissatisfied.

  “Able to do what...?” I ask, realizing she was trying to use her power on me, but I haven't even heard what her power is.

  “Christian, get out of my sights right now. I don’t want to see your horrid face.”

  I stay put, wanting to get more out of why she does this to me.

  “Charlotte, I didn’t get out of bed just for you to try to do something to me and get told to leave.”

  She then gres at me with hatred.

  “Do you want to die? I wouldn't want to kill another student who is ranks below me, but I will if I have to, if I couldn't find another use...” she holds herself back from going any further, afraid she will give too much information.

  But I don’t want to fight—at least not now... As my back is turned, leaving, I feel a simir force that was above my right shoulder, but instead of it feeling connected and drawn to me, I feel a forceful opposite trying to tear me apart.

  I quickly turn around, and the feeling stops, but it's filled with a new emotion—worry—as I look back and see no Charlotte or the 2 girls that follow her... Only the moon, and somehow that's what shakes me the most. But then I look over to my disc, slowly swaying back and forth around me like it's having fun on a swing.

  "You're acting like you just didn’t save me from whatever Charlotte was throwing at me. If you're going to stick around, I might as well give you a name..."

  It hums, almost like it has the emotion of anticipation.

  "Maybe... Taiyo? Does that work?"

  Taiyo hums in acceptance as we walk back across the Academy to the D-rank dorms at building F-5.

  I push myself off my bed and hit my arm to shut up, my instincts to slice the arm in half with Taiyo, but I refrain from doing so. It's 7 in the morning. I have time to eat and maybe a slight run. If there are actual stats to this school, I’ve got to train not only my power but my body.

  I open my closet and see one school uniform. It's more like a track suit than a uniform, but if we are going to be training and fighting, we do need something more flexible than a school uniform.

  "But this is now the only clothes I have, or it’s the clothes I wore here with a bullet hole and blood-stained pants and torn-up shirt from the Rank Trial..."

  I let out a sigh.

  "There is a shopping district here. After the lesson, I might head there to get some outfits. I do have 50,000 to spend, after all."

  I throw on the school uniform and exit my dorm. The halls are a lot livelier than st night, and everyone seems at least a little ready for the lesson, whatever it is.

  I exit building F-5 and notice a bunch of people exit the F buildings. Could it be the F buildings are the dorms for each rank? I start counting the buildings.

  "6... 7."

  Then I start counting on my hand.

  "E... and F. There are 7 ranks. Guess so."

  It’s good to start knowing what every building does because building F-1 is like an 8-star hotel, but building F-5 looks to be around a 3-star... but then I look at buildings F-6 and F-7 and feel kind of bad at the sorry state their buildings look.

  I drop the idea for now and make my way back to building B-2 to eat. I scan my watch and enter the cafeteria. There's a good bit of buzz in the room. It seems D-ranks want to prove themselves and want to get better. If the way I had gotten to this point was so harsh, I’d say this is just a nice school experience.

  I grab a tray of food—eggs, bacon, milk, and sausage.

  "Even though this is an elite school, the meals still stay the same, huh?"

  I look around and spot Kat sitting all alone. I walk over, and her head is down. I sit next to her. She moves over to the side to make space.but then she looks up Realizes who I am Quickly moves back to where she was sitting.

  "Christian! G-Good morning! Did you sleep well?"

  I sit and take a bite of my food.

  "I did, but my arm took me out of it... how was your sleep, Kat?"

  She shifts when I say her nickname.

  "It was good, but it took a while for me to fall asleep—you know, with just all that has happened..."

  I nod.

  "Yeah, I get that. It took me a little bit to fall asleep as well..."

  I want to mention the reasons why, but remember the regret it brings to Kat.

  “Well, are we at least ready for the first lesson?” Kat asks. She seems readier than most would.

  “Yeah, I am. I’d like to give my Taiyo some more action because I’m not sure what it could be capable of.”

  Kat tilts her head. “Taiyo?”

  “Oh, right. My Disc. I named it Taiyo. I think it’s a good name, right?”

  She quickly nods her head. “Oh! Yes, it’s a great name!”

  From then on, the conversation turns into light small talk.

  At 7:45, we all get a notification on our SENTRYS.

  “Please make your way to Building C-3. Room Ca-1.”

  Kat stands up. “That’s right next door. We should make our way there early!”

  I nod, taking my final bite of eggs. “Yeah, sure.”

  We both stand up and throw our trays away. I wish all my other friends were in the same rank as me—I would like to eat lunch with them. But I don’t have time to dwell on that feeling.

  As me and Kat enter Building C-3, we are almost immediately hit with the room Ca-1.

  “That was easy to find,” I say pinly.

  Kat nods as we enter the room. It’s a rge arena. I see about 21 cones close to us in a line, and then on the far side of the room, 21 more cones. I give a quick thought of what the lesson could be, but my mind’s overtaken by the fact we are the first ones in the room.

  “Is this the right room?” Kat asks, worried that we might be in the wrong pce.

  I poke my head out of the door and look at the sign beling the room—‘Ca-1’—but I also notice, while poking my head out, more kids are coming.

  I pull my head back into the room and say, “Nope, we’re good. This is the pce, and more kids are coming. We are just early.”

  Kat lets out a sigh of relief, and we both sit down at a nearby wall. More and more kids trickle in as the time approaches 8 a.m.

  “I’ve counted 42 D-ranks including us...” I say, just doing something to pass the time. I could have just looked at the rank board if I wanted to know how many of each rank there are.

  As time strikes 8, a woman in business casual clothes walks in. Our attention turns to her as she steps into the middle of the room.

  “Welcome to your first lesson, D-ranks. I will be your instructor for today. If you have been wondering why you were set at this rank, it means you got hit during the Trial and showed ck of strategy, or you ran from some problems that need to be done. But I know your minds are also on something else right now—this lesson.

  “Look around you. You’re all going to find a pair to work with, and each of you are going to stand—have one partner stand at one of the far cones, and one partner at the close cones. The close cone partner will start running with a metal pipe and bring it to the far cone partner. The far cone will then take the metal pipe and hit a bell then located at the close cone. Then run back, give it to the close cone partner, and then repeat.

  “Whichever team has the most rings at the end of the 15 minutes will have their ranks revaluated based off their performance. But there is a likely chance there is no change—just considered in ter revaluations. Have I made myself clear?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she says, “Good. Now find a partner and line up on your cones. The lesson will start on my word.”

  Me and Kat look at each other and nod. She is taking the far side, me taking the close side.

  All the other D-ranks line up too. I can’t help but notice an overly grinning boy on the edge of the cones, his body looking quite agile.

  My attention turns back to the lesson as the instructor starts to speak again.

  “Remember, most rings at the end of the 15 minutes wins. And I also forgot to mention—this is not going to be as easy as you think. There will be things that might... slow you down. As well as pairs can mess with other pairs, within reason. I hope these words don’t throw you off too many students, because the trial now begins!”

  I start running over to Kat, and I get there without any problems. She grabs the rod and starts running to the bell. As I wait for her to come back, I notice I was one of the first ones to reach my partner, but my jaw drops when I already hear a ring of a bell. I look over and see that it’s the boys on the edge that were grinning.

  I watch them, and my face turns even more shocked as I see them speed up a lot.

  “Speed powers?! How are we going to compete against them—!”

  As the boy who rang the bell starts running back, the ceiling opens and a much stronger-looking drone appears compared to the Rank Trial one. I hear other kids' slightly worried reactions, but the boy just runs past it, and then the drone turns and basically faces all of us. I now realize these drones are not for one pair, but a free-for-all.

  I hear another bell ring, and I look over, and Kat is running back to me, but another drone starts to descend from the roof. I decide it's time to test out Taiyo for the first time and send it to attack the drone. A streak of light flows behind it and hits the drone, but it doesn't cut it in half like it did before—but there’s still damage I can see.

  The drones start firing, and more bells ring, and more drones come. I destroy the drone that dropped when our bell rang, and for some reason, my body feels lighter and flows better.

  Kat comes back to me, and I start running. I’m faster than I ran before. It takes me a second to adjust to the speed.

  “Why is this happening...?”

  I reach the bell and hit it with the metal pipe. Another drone drops down, but I look at my watch activate, and it reads:

  ‘2 Charge.’

  “Wait, I got Charge from what?”

  I say this, but I need to focus back up to the lesson, and I start running. I’m halfway. A drone fires at me, but it’s quickly blocked by Taiyo. I reach Kat and hand her the pipe, and she starts running.

  While she runs, I look out for her, using Taiyo to block hits for her and destroy some drones, and I watch as my Charge increases. As I hit the drones, my body becomes lighter and lighter, and once my Charge hits 20, a notification pops up:

  ‘Maximum Charge hit for the bonus for Radiant Overflow. Anything past this point is dangerous—please use skills to release Charge.’

  I quickly call back Taiyo at its warning and open my apps, going to the skills app. I need to get Taiyo back out there to protect Kat, but the app is still confusing, and I haven’t gotten time to understand it. But I see something read ‘20 Charge’ under the skill tab, and I quickly press it, not caring for what it does.

  I feel the Charge leave my body and my movements become slower, but the same as when I didn’t have Charge. But suddenly, a pulse comes out from Taiyo, covering the whole lesson. All the drones suddenly turn to Taiyo and start firing at only Taiyo. All the kids stare in awe at what just happened—including me—but we soon snap out of it as our partners reach back to us.

  Out of breath while handing me the metal pipe, Kat says, “Tell me what you just did after this, okay?”

  I grab the pipe and start running again. The lesson goes on. At the 4th minute, the attention on Taiyo fades. At the 10th minute, I’m back up to 20 Charges again and decide to stop killing drones so I can keep the speed from the Charge and just py defensively.

  In the final minute, a leaderboard pops up at the roof.

  1st: 38 rings – The boys on the edge with the speed powers. 2nd: 36 rings – Me and Kat.

  We are close behind. We could pass them, but they would need to stop scoring now.

  My mind remembers a rule: we can sabotage other pairs. No one has tried this yet because we were too busy with the drones.

  I send Taiyo between their team’s cones, and I hit one of them with the ft side of Taiyo, knocking one of the boys off bance. Kat brings back the metal pipe—we are now at 37.

  I start running and the time is ticking down. I see the boy start to get back up, and I hit him again. He trips up. He yells out in anger, and he punches Taiyo. I bring Taiyo back to my side to block some hits from drones.

  The boy gres at me. He gets up and hands off the metal pipe to his partner. And I see the speed increase. If he gets it, we lose, and there is not enough time for me to get a point and get back to Kat and she score. So we could only go for a tie.

  I reach the bell and hit it. But the boy is almost at their bell. There’s not enough time for Taiyo to fly...

  ‘Activated: Blitz.’

  I feel my body become slower as the Charge leaves my body. Taiyo fires across the room in a streak of yellow light, and when the metal pipe is about to hit their bell, it’s knocked out of the boy’s hand—and the time limit hits 0.

  Tied. 38–38.

  I let out a sigh of relief as the drones fly back into the roof.

  “A tie. I’m happy with that,” I say as Taiyo flies back to my side and Kat comes up to me.

  “Christian, we tied! I was almost sure we were going to lose!”

  Me and Kat celebrate—at least a half victory—but I know what is coming. The 2 boys come running up to me and Kat.

  “So what was that for, Christian? And I thought you said you didn’t have a power yet?!” The boy I knocked the pipe out of their hands says, his voice slightly angry but more shocked than anything else.

  “Yeah, I got this during the Rank Trial. Sorry if I hurt you guys, but I wanted to win. But it seems like we tied.”

  They both nod at my answer, and the other boy says, “We thought we had that game in the bag based off our powers, but you pyed well and honestly helped us when your Disc thingy got the attention of all the drones, so there’s no hard feelings.”

  I’m relieved that they’re not angry at me for basically attacking them, and they turn and leave.

  “So what’s next...” Kat asks behind me as I notice that there is no one here to direct us after the lesson.

  “Hey Kat, you know this school is all about self-determination, right?”

  She quickly nods. “Yeah, I heard about it. Why bring it up?”

  I start walking to the exit of the room. “We are on our own, so this lesson is over. Of course, you won’t be alone if you make friends—so I'd like you to meet some people, Kat.”

  She quickly runs back up to me and follows, as all the other D-ranks start to realize too and begin filtering out of the room.

  I open my contacts app and message Ivan, Simon, and Melody to meet up with me at a little restaurant I saw yesterday while heading to see Charlotte. The sun hits our faces as we walk across the Academy, but before we can get there, I see a notification on my SENTRY.

  “Christian, please report to the SENTRY room.”

  “What’s happening, Christian? Can one of them not come?” Kat asks curiously.

  “I’m not sure. Here, Kat—go on ahead and introduce yourself to my friends. I’m sure you know Melody a little.”

  Kat looks uneased by my words, unsure if she can talk to people she doesn't know, but I give her a reassuring smile and she nods and continues walking.

  I turn around and start heading to Building A-1, where the SENTRY room is. I enter the slightly cold building and walk deep past the auditorium and arena rooms we were at yesterday. Then I reach the room beled SENTRY, and before I can even knock, the door slides open.

  I enter and hear the long, drawn-out voice of our one and only Vanguard researcher.

  “Hellllooooo Christian, how’s my favorite student? I can say that now because no one else is here. So how are you doing on your first real day?”

  She comes sliding out on a rolling chair from somewhere in the back of the b.

  “It’s been good. Me and my friend Kat—the bluish-haired girl that was in my group yesterday when you expined the SENTRYs, yeah her—me and her tied for 1st in our first lesson we just got done doing, and we were going to have a little friend hangout. But you called. So why did you bring me here?”

  Her face becomes a little more calcuted, and she stares at Taiyo.

  “I called you here because of that.”