I turn and face Taiyo, the disc hovering and humming beside me. “So, what of Taiyo have you called for?”

  She begins to smile. “Oh my gosh, you gave it a name, that’s so cute!”

  For a second, I thought this was going to be a serious conversation about my power, but based off that, I’m not so sure. “The name is this cute...?”

  She nods. “It is!”

  I let out a sigh. “But really, why did you call me in here?”

  She refocuses and says, “Oh right, I was watching your first lesson, and it seems my theory was correct. You have an app on your SENTRY that’s made for Taiyo, right?”

  I eye her up, wondering how she knows—but then again, she is the one who made the SENTRY, so I guess it's not that far-fetched. “Yeah, I do, but it’s honestly just big fshy menus that I have no idea how to work.”

  She walks up to me and turns on my SENTRY. She clicks and heads to the Skill app. The confusing menus pop up again, and it's slightly more understandable because I’m not in the middle of a lesson or sleep-deprived. I look at Zaina to see her reaction, and she looks like this is the easiest thing to understand?!

  “I want to test you...” she says, basically drooling out of her mouth like a researching zombie. “Please get a hold of yourself... but from what I can tell, you can understand this?”

  She wipes her mouth, adjusts her gsses, and nods. “Yes, I can. Watch.”

  She clicks out of a few things—stuff I was too scared to click out of because I might have messed something up—then it's just the base screen. It shows how much charge I have at the top.

  Then, below that, tabs: Skills, Upgrades, Locked, and Locked.

  Below that are the skills I can do. She clicks over to the Upgrades tab, and I see a couple things: Speed: 1. Control: 1. Charge Capacity: 20. Charge Cap: 50. Locked. Locked.

  All of them look like they can be upgraded—except for the locked ones, of course—but all of them look like they can go up to 100.

  “Christian, tell me, how do we get you charge? Because I’ve already seen you, but if you could get up to max on all of these—who knows...”

  Zaina shivers but also seems to love the thought. “That’s a great question. I think the way I get charge is by hitting things with Taiyo, but I’m not sure exactly,” I say, because I got charge for hitting the drones but not the Speedy boys.

  “Then let's go test it! Come on, I can reserve us a training arena just to tes—”

  I cut her off and say, “Hold on, I’d love to, but could we do it a different time? I have some friends waiting for me, and I would hate to just ghost them when I was the one that pnned it.”

  She frowns but nods her head. “Oh, right, sorry. Then could ter today work?”

  I nod. “Works fine with me—just give me a time and I’ll see if it works.”

  With that, I walk out of the SENTRY room and back across the Academy. I walk up and see Ivan, Simon, Melody, and Kat all chatting, sitting at a group of metal tables in the middle of a group of stores. I think these are the X buildings, but the sight of all this puts a smile on my face.

  “Seems like all you guys are getting along well.”

  They all nod and turn to face Kat. She shrinks a little under everyone’s gaze but still has a smile on. “Yeah, I’m happy to meet you guys and to know Christian has good friends,” Kat says, looking at me and the others.

  “So what have all of you been talking about while I was out?”

  Melody then speaks up. “I’m just shocked at how good her English is, really. Kat can talk really well!”

  I nod at that answer, then I start to look at the stores in front of us, remembering my problem that I had that morning with clothes. “Hey guys, just making sure—you have money to spend. Would you like to go shopping?”

  They all nod and we start to check in every store.

  It was interesting. The insides were polished and had the test models and products lining their shelves, but there was not a worker in sight. Kat, despite her being comfortable around the rest of the group, still hovered behind me.

  “What’s stopping us from just taking this stuff?” Kat asks innocently—but she’s right.

  I then notice the high-tech sensors lining the doors of each store. “Guessing it’s to keep us from knowing what’s going on in the outside world. No workers to bribe, no info,” I say.

  But then I wonder—are people still on the fence right outside the school grounds? I’m on the other side of the school, but if I’m ever at the A building, I might take a look.

  It seems Ivan, Simon, Melody, and Kat all had the same idea of me, because we all have bags full of clothes, but I only spent around 750 on clothes that should have me looking fine every day.

  It’s about mid-day when we are done, and Ivan says he is going to go eat lunch in the B-Rank Cafeteria. Simon and Melody hear this and split off too. I then look at Kat. “You hungry too?”

  She quickly nods, and I let out a sigh. “Dang, I guess we will all hang out a ter time then. Nothing beats the power of hunger... That gets me wondering—what's the weirdest power someone has?”

  Me and Kat start walking, and she looks to be considering my question. “Your power is quite strange, Christian.”

  We enter Building B-2. “You really think so? Sure, there’s some strange things that involve it, but throwing around a disc with some hot edges isn’t that special.”

  We grab our lunch and sit down and continue our small talk when we start to overhear some other conversations. “Hey man, want to head over to the training arena ter?” I overhear two guys talking about.

  But wait—didn’t Zaina say she needed to rent out an arena? Or maybe teachers need to rent out, and students have free reign...

  I open my SENTRY’s map and search for D-Rank training arena. And there it shows Building G-2.

  Kat looks over to see what I’m looking at. “Hey Kat, want to head to the training arena after we finish eating?”

  She perks up but looks hesitant. “Um, I’m not sure. My power isn’t really one to train with, remember...”

  That’s right—she needs someone to be hurt to really use her powers. “I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt checking it out at least. It sounds like that’s what most kids are going to be doing in their free time, so I think it’s important to at least check out, right?”

  She approves of my words and says, “That makes sense! Alright, I’ll go!”

  I smile and say, “Alright then, let’s start training!”

  We finish eating and make our way over to the G buildings and enter G-2. It’s the rgest building I have been in yet.

  When you first step in, it’s a rge gym area. To your left are two duel arenas, in the back right there are rooms to train brain-reted things like strategy and other matters. And lining the back wall, there are specialized rooms—most likely to test powers and have real training scenarios.

  “Woah... I can’t imagine how the higher ranks’ training areas are...”

  I see Kat start wandering off to the brain training areas, and I just let her go as my mind wanders to the duel arenas.

  I walk up and there is a screen next to the door. I tap on it and it turns on. Then it shows a hand pad scan. Pcing my hand on the scanner, it shows my rank—still D-—and avaible duels I could accept, or I could make my own duel requests.

  Then on another tab, it shows another leaderboard, and a 0 next to my name and also a 0 next to everyone else’s name.

  ‘Win duels to earn points’

  “So this isn’t like the rank leaderboard. I guess whoever wins the most duels just is at the top, so a B-Rank could technically be above an S in this leaderboard,” I say to myself, kind of enjoying the idea of a higher rank being lower than a lower rank.

  I then feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and find a tan-skinned, brown-haired boy.

  “Would you like to duel me?” he asks.

  I’m pretty sure this guy’s name is Luiz. “Uh, yeah, sure. Have you done this before?” I ask him, unsure, but he seems confident.

  He looks at the screen and says, “Tap back to the other screen.”

  I do as he says, and then he continues. “Click 'Make a duel request.'”

  I click it and it pops up with my name and the option to choose an opponent. Below that, there are some rules. “Hey man, sorry to ask, but what’s your name?”

  “It’s Luiz.” “So I did get it right...”

  I type in Luiz, and he pops up. I put him down and then accept the rules.

  ‘Send?’ it says, asking for my confirmation.

  I click yes, and then I watch Luiz’s watch light up. He clicks something, and the screen on the door then has a list saying, ‘Awaiting duels.’

  I click on our duel, and it asks for both people to scan their hand. “Jeez, all this for just a duel?” I say as I pce my hand.

  Luiz comes up and the screen fshes green, and the door opens. He says, “I know, right? Anyways, could I ask what your power is? I saw a little of it in this morning’s lesson, but I still have no idea what it is.”

  He eyes Taiyo curiously, but I also eye him up. “I was going to ask you the same thing, but you did ask me first, so—I can throw around this disc and hit stuff with it, as well as giving it boosts once I have enough of a certain thing to do so.”

  Luiz’s face just seems to get more questions, but I think he accepts the answer. Then he starts to speak. “Alright then, maybe we are an okay match-up, because I can control pnts and roots, stuff like that.”

  I nod at the answer.

  I wonder if I can chop through his attacks... that was my immediate thought.

  But as we stepped on the arena, I was nervous—for Luiz, because I have no idea how Taiyo is going to damage him, but also for myself. Can I even fight?

  There was a robot in the middle of the room, and on it, it asks us to ‘Confirm.’ We click it, and it begins talking. “Hello students, please respect your opponents. Students can tap out anytime, but there are staff watching and are allowed to stop the fight whenever they please. Any powers are allowed. If you deliberately target the arena or attack once the round is over, disciplinary action will follow. Now, please step into the starting zones.”

  As the robot finishes speaking, it starts to roll off of the arena, and green pilrs shine down on opposite sides of the arena. I step to. I’m ready, but I can’t lie—I’m not sure what's going to happen in this duel.

  Once I step in, the green pilr turns blue, and soon after Luiz reaches his, a countdown starts. ‘10...’

  I let out a breath. “Let’s do this...”

  ‘0’

  The blue pilrs drop, and I start moving. I watch Luiz, and green magic is formed around his hands. Two rge vines shoot up from the ground and start flying at me.

  Taiyo intercepts, cutting them clean like butter. I move close to Luiz, and I send Taiyo flying at him. He doesn’t move, and once Taiyo reaches him, a thick root blocks for him. Taiyo can cut through the first few yers, but it's tough.

  I quickly have to call back Taiyo because three more vines come shooting. Taiyo cuts through two, but the st one clips my shoulder.

  But my mind wanders— “Why am I not getting fast like I did in the lesson?!”

  I can’t think long, as on the ground, pnts spring up and I manage to barely dodge in time.

  I start moving, trying to throw off Luiz’s aim. I open my SENTRY and the skills app—still only 2 charge left over from the lesson this morning. I can see that I have enough to use Blitz. I quickly click it, and it goes flying in a streak of golden light.

  Luiz is caught off guard, and Taiyo sshes his side—and I regain charge. “So is that how it works? By hitting my opponent, I gain charge. Interesting... SHOOT.”

  With Taiyo all the way over where Luiz is, I’m defenseless. Two slithering vines burst out of the ground. I put up my arms to block—they smack down, and I hold, but my arms are now red and stinging.

  “I can’t win like this...”

  Taiyo reaches my side, and then I start running straight at Luiz. He’s still standing there—honestly, it’s bothering me—but the wound on his side means he can be hit.

  I’m getting close to him, but why isn’t he doing anything?

  But then my leg gets caught around something—a vine holding me. I can’t move, so I command Taiyo to cut it, but then I hear a heavy whooshing.

  I turn back, and a huge, thick vine is about to collide straight on with me.

  I can’t do anything... ‘Sor Protection activated’

  Taiyo melts over my body, covering the most important parts. But it still hurts. The hold on my leg keeps me there, and it snaps me back, and the force of it knocks the wind out of me—but I’m still in this.

  The rge vine passes over me and I stand. Luiz is in pure disbelief and seems worried. I cut the vine that’s holding my leg and start moving. It hurts, but my leg works, and I move close to Luiz, commanding Taiyo to start slicing away.

  His vines get thinner and thinner, and he can’t produce any offensive ones anymore either.

  Then I feel it—my body gets lighter just slightly as an attack makes its way through. A few more seconds pass, and I soon hear a panicked, “I surrender!”

  The lights turn red and a countdown starts from ‘5’. I stop attacking, and the lights go back to normal. “I guess that was a warning for me to stop attacking...”

  Then on a screen, it shows my face and then Winner below it.

  I let out a victorious sigh and look over at Luiz. His vines are slowly disappearing, and he looks exhausted. He doesn’t seem too damaged, actually—just really spent.

  He sits down, and I go sit down next to him. “That was fun... scary at times though,” I say, catching my breath along with Luiz. “How did you survive that?” he asks, looking like I just walked on water. “I think your answer is this thing,” I say, looking at Taiyo.

  He nods at that and just stays quiet for a minute. Soon, the duel room door opens and medical staff come in.

  I then feel a sharp pain in my ankle as my adrenaline wears off. It was probably torn in half during the st attack he did. Hopefully it’s not too bad...

  I see Luiz start getting treated for the cuts he got from Taiyo. “Can you stand?” a nurse asks me.

  I push myself up—it’s shaky, but I manage. I’m given some pain meds and some soothing gel on my arms and told to get some rest.

  With that, me and Luiz leave the arena. I look to my side and see there’s a small crowd looking at a TV on the wall—and suddenly they all turn to me and Luiz.

  Words of, “That was awesome!” and “How did you win that?!” come my way.

  Luiz isn’t so lucky—“Come on man, you had him!” and “All you needed to do was attack him one more time!”

  But overall, the other people in our rank are just hyped from watching that fight.

  I look over my shoulder at the screen next to the duel arena’s door and see that I’m at the top of the leaderboard.

  Guess I’m the first to duel and win. It’s going to be a short victory—but at least a victory.

  I also see there are 3 more duels queued up already. It seems people got the idea after watching our fight.

  The group of people disperses, and I look around—and I guess Luiz snuck away, because I don’t see him.

  Ashamed, I wanted to tell him how that fight was... I guess I’ll find him at a ter time then.

  More importantly—is Kat still in the brain rooms?

  I walk through the building to the back right. Going through all the training areas—it’s really got me thinking. If this fancy stuff is for D-Ranks, I wonder how amazing the higher rank rooms are.

  The door slides open to six smaller rooms, and one of those rooms says Occupied. “It would be embarrassing if this isn’t Kat,” I say to myself as the door slides open.

  I walk in and see three people Kat on the ground, Charlotte, and one of the Speedy boys standing over her.

  Charlotte just looks over her shoulder and smiles.