"Professor Grace, have the students entered the incubators?"
Sergeant Red said while walking in. He visited the medical ward building 2 every time there were new transfers to year 2.
"Yes. Sergeant Red, why don't you go confirm with your own eyes? There should be a handful of faces you'll never see again."
"It's fine, I'm not interested."
"If you're not interested, I wonder why you come visit medical ward building 2 every time."
Grace said irritated.
She was not the only person among the many medical researchers with chronic mental illness and stress. They regularly conducted immoral experiments on human bodies. It wasn't something that could be done with an alert mind. It didn't help that their subjects consisted of only young boys.
"It would be troublesome if my precious talents were murdered by you, professor."
"I always do my best, Sergeant Red. Did the sun rise from the west? How did you manage to agree with Drill Instructor Wei? I saw that Han Lee had received a letter of recommendation from the both of you."
"If you get to know the boy, you will come to understand. He is different. The word excellent cannot define him."
Sergeant Red slowly opened his eyes and said.
"He could end up dead before I get to talk to him."
"That would be a pity."
Sergeant Red continued with his trivial jokes some more and left medical ward 2.
Grace returned to the dormitories, slept for four hours, and then awoke once more. She got herself a cup of coffee and entered the monitoring room. The children who awaken from their sleep would twitch their eyebrows.
A week had passed. There had not been anyone showing complications.
For children with a sturdy build like Dimitri, they already passed into a stable state. Grace showed off giant dark circles below her eyes as she stared into the monitor screen.
"Would everyone come out safely this time around?"
Grace mumbled feeling relieved. She got up and poured herself another cup of coffee, then she faltered. The monitor screen graph jerked rapidly.
Grace threw her coffee cup aside, shattering it, and returned to her seat.
"Han Lee?"
The data came from Han's incubator. Han's brain waves were erratic. He had woken up from his slumber.
"Why? He didn't show any signs of waking up at all! Why?"
Grace quickly pressed the emergency button. All the researchers got a shock from the alarm from across the halls.
"Han Lee is awake."
"Administer the pain killers, try to urge him into sleep."
"His consciousness is too alert. His brain waves are off the charts."
"Go to the incubation room! Get him to calm down!"
The sound of Han banging on the incubator walls could be heard from within the room. He was banging from within.
He didn't let out a single scream of pain, but Han was suffering from unimaginable pain inside the incubator. The pain was hard to endure.
"This has never happened before."
Grace reviewed the process of his incubation for any errors. Something suddenly flashed into her mind.
"Turn off Han's psychic energy inducing system. Drain out the content from within his incubator, and refill it with the solution we used during the initial stages of our studies."
The researchers were swift to comply with Grace's commands. They turned off the blue lamp besides his incubator.
"Han is showing signs of returning to sleep. He will be fully asleep in a few moments."
"Check for any damages. If need be, refill his incubator with new solution. I'll backtrack on the data we collected here."
Grace entered the research room and turned on the computer. She entered various data and it computed the various probable reasons of this incident and its probability.
"A psyker rejecting psychic energy?"
During the operation, there is a stage when psychic energy is induced. They would force their psychic energies to circulate more naturally around their body so that they would have an easier time using their powers.
The solution that had been mixed into their incubator had been from a dragon psychic core; they had diluted a dragon heart to create a highly potent psychic energy solution.
Han's body rejected the dragon heart completely, resulting in complications throughout the process.
"There has never been a case like this before."
Grace reaffirmed the complication data that had been recorded from past subjects.
Usually the students suffered complications due to problems relating to their physical bodies; there had never been a case where one would suffer due to psychic energies. This was the reason why Grace and the researchers took awhile to figure out the problem Han was suffering from.
"We must skip over the psychic energy inducing stages. Anyway, he wasn't moved up into year two for his psychic skills. He should be able to make it through somehow."
Grace removed all the factors relating to psychic power enhancement. This was better than having him die halfway into the surgical process.
"I wonder what our superiors would think of this."
Grace smiled bitterly as she wrote up a report. The two week of incubation passed.
The incubator lids creaked open one by one. The incubation solutions were flooding the laboratory floor.
Gradually, the youths regained their alertness and crawled out of their incubators. They couldn't manage to stand properly at all. They staggered around and tripped onto the ground.
"Cough"
The students began to vomit.
They somehow managed to follow the researchers into the patient ward while bearing with their dizziness. All of the students got onto their beds while seeming to be struggling with a high fever. It would take another two days to regain proper alertness.
"…. Has anyone died?"
Someone with a clear voice asked. The researchers momentarily questioned their hearing. It was Han Lee who had asked among the group of students.
Trudge, trudge.
Han used all his strength to get up while using his bedside pole as support.
"None."
"I see."
Han closed his eyes, fainting. The researchers discussed amongst themselves.
"He was able to regain alertness immediately after getting out of the incubators."
"I wonder if it's because he didn't go through the psychic energy inducing process."
"Even if that is so, it would be hard to recover their alertness like he had."
Han's recovery was much faster than most youths. He was able to make a full recovery after just a day.
He had been able to solve the math problems of the Uchida-Kraepelin performance test with relative ease.
"Do not be surprised upon seeing the mirror."
The researchers brought personal mirrors for the students to see. Han's irises trembled. His face felt unfamiliar. His face had matured greatly.
Creaak.
A machine had been attached to Han's hips, spine, and legs. The mechanical exoskeleton helped aid his gait.
"You must have the mechanical exoskeleton attached to you for awhile. You will be able to recover within three weeks time, with lots of time to spare. Your recovery speed is extremely frightening. There are students who have yet to awaken as we speak."
Han was not able to get out of his personal recovery room for awhile. Grace visited each student's room one by one to consult with the patients.
"Are you doing well?"
Grace asked.
"Thanks to you."
Han's eyes looked calm. Grace had consulted with five other students prior to visiting Han.
'He doesn't seem as agitated as the other children.'
Grace took out some graphs and statistics that Han couldn't understand. It had the run down of the complications and the reasons why they had stopped inducing psychic powers.
"There is no precedence for this situation. It was the first time a psyker ever rejected psychic energies. Do you understand what this means? Anyway, if we forced the procedure you would have died. You probably don't remember, but you were banging inside the incubator and going crazy.
Han nodded his head.
"It's better to be alive than receive the procedure."
"Han, you will be registered as a unique case. Whenever you experience problems with your psychic powers, come report to me. Are you experiencing any other problems? Maybe like feeling disharmony with your physical body– things like that."
"I feel refreshed. I have one less thing to worry about. At least now, I won't have to worry about getting kicked out for having bad grades, right?"
Grace continued her consultation with Han for awhile longer. She recalled the information of Han's profile.
'This was the reason Sergeant Red had recommended this student.'
Han had no problems regarding his mental health. He had a strong and confident sense of self. Grace was momentarily shocked and peered toward Han.
'Is this the steel spirit that Sergeant Red had been looking for?'
It was to the degree that Grace felt a bit embarrassed asking these types of questions to Han. Han articulated his answers clearly. On the contrary, he began to ask questions about the future.
"Yes, after everyone becomes stable, you'll be able to meet each other once more."
Grace stepped out of Han's hospital ward. Han's health exam was near perfect. There would be no problem if he were to start training right away.
'Psychic talent is important, but strong mental strength is important as well. Han excelled compared to the students his age. It's a mystery why his psychic talent is so low.'
Grace contemplated carefully. There should be a specific reason his body had rejected psychic energy induction.
Psychic energy was still quite a mysterious factor. It had not been fully understood yet. It was much more related to the supernatural world.