"Throughout these few months, all of you have splendidly grown from little boys and girls into slightly more buff little boys and girls."
The first years started chuckling at the slight joke Roger was giving.
"During this period most of you have gotten through the fundamentals of onmyoudou and are now at the starting line of being proud onmyouji. But… This year things are a little different."
The first years looked confused and so did some of the Instructors.
"Everyone rejoice or lament your fate. This year marks a new generation, before you are able to enjoy your status as onmyouji, you are going to have to prove it."
Everyone was shocked at the development and started whispering to each other.
"This year all first year's whites will go for live combat with the fifth year's greys."
Greys And whites were normal code to indicate between those who were onmyouji and those who were warriors. The whites were onmyouji who were considered the 'light' due to them being the main part of the team while the greys were those without spirit particles and had to be trained in different aspects.
Greys had to be trained for a longer period of time in order to be combat effective while whites only required two or three years of training.
"Live combat? Are they serious?"
"Shit! I should have joined last year instead…"
"Hey! Why are you lot so down? It's a chance to prove yourself!"
"It's a chance to die too."
Whatever the arguments, the first years had no choice in the matter.
"You will be meeting your teammates later on but for now… You may call your loved ones and prepare yourself for the mission."
Roger didn't know if everyone of them could come back alive but he knew if they could survive it they would come back stronger.
Rin didn't want to worry his Sister or his father so he didn't contact them but he did record a video. It was in a sense his will. He set it up with a time delay should he not return it would be sent to his Sister's communicator.
After about two hours the greys and the whites were gathered but it looked a little weird. The greys were all older so they stood out much more compared to the whites mostly due to the height difference.
As their names were called out, some were happy and some weren't. No one wanted a lousy teammate in the field after all.
"Squad 3 assigned to Tyler, ID: 4736378."
.
.
.
"Squad 9 assigned to Jacob, ID:3927271."
"Squad 10 assigned to Rin, ID: 3245682."
None of the squads knew the first years they were assigned to so they had to ask around the other first years to find their whites. Sometimes it was hard as there were different classes for the first years so they may not know they name or not know where the particular person was.
"Hmm we got a person named Rin? Is that a boy or girl I can't tell."
"I hope it's a cute girl."
"That's all you think about Markian. Girls day in and day out, heck even if we get a cute girl she'd only be a first year you perv."
"Please, don't pretend to take the high road with me. We all know you secretly prefer a cute guy to join. Because deep down in all of us we know the true and absolute law of this world." Markian said in a cool yet comical manner.
"Cuteness is Justice!" Markian did a guts pose and pretended to seem unfathomable with his eyes gazing off into the distance.
"..... I'm suddenly more worried about having this idiot on the team than a random onmyouji."
"Seconded."
"Closet perverts the lot of you!" Markian mumbled other his breath but the rest of the squad easily heard it.
Jack, a member of the tenth squad had enough and asked a random white if they knew where Rin was.
"Oh you're looking for Rin? How envious, you got him in your squad… If I could I would kill to be in a squad with him.. Sigh but only one onmyouji per squad made that impossible to happen." The female white was rather talkative and Jack didn't want to offend her and since he also was asking for a favour he patiently waited.
"Hmm? That's him!" The female white suddenly saw Rin and pointed him out.
The squad turned their head to the direction she pointed and there he saw a rather young boy, so young that in comparison with all the other young whites here he looked the youngest.