The moment I got out of the car, I was once again besieged by the paparazzi. I had hoped that they would leave me alone for the rest of the day but unfortunately that was not the case. They persistently followed me as I sprinted up those egregiously long stairs, and only when I had fully entered the building did threat of the press finally fade.
"God, they are persistent." I cursed under my breath as I walked through the entrance.
"That's because to them you are an enigma." a voice said in a thick Chinese accent.
I turned to see a tall burly Asian man with jet black eyes and long dark brown hair walking towards me.
"Hello Rei, I'm Liu Xiu Wei. You can call me Liu though," he reached out his hand. "I hope we can become allies during our stay here."
I scrunched my eyebrows, "You do realize you robbed me of a $100,000 scholarship right?"
"Robbed? I robbed you of it?" Liu questioned it so innocently that I couldn't even fire back.
"Tch, whatever. Nice to finally meet you in person I guess." I reached over and shook his hand.
"There Liu goes, trying to make friends with everyone." a blonde haired man walked up to the two of us and patted Liu on the back.
"To be honest, Liu was waiting for you to arrive. He must have been really interested in you."
"Shut it Kaiton, I know you were waiting too." Liu chuckled before walking away towards the auditorium.
Though no bells had rang yet, the New Student Assembly started soon so I assume that he was probably heading there.
"You probably heard it from Liu, but I'm Kaiton," he said in an optimistic tone. "It's nice to finally meet you person."
"Thank you for the kind words." I said with a smile.
Suddenly, a lighthearted short jingle played over the loudspeaker. Rei turned to the loudspeaker as a voice started to talk.
"Attention all New Ragna Students, please start heading towards the auditorium. Assembly will start in 10 minutes." the loudspeaker turned off.
"I should probably get going." Before Rei could turn to leave, Kaiton reached out his hand.
"I know we won't be in the same class because you're an international student, but I hope we can be friends."
Rei looked at Kaiton for a few seconds before turning his hand away
"I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to engage in social interactions when I could spend the time studying or practicing. But it was nice meeting you regardless."
"I see," his smile wavered slightly. "It's because I'm domestic isn't it."
"No, it's because I don't want to seek a fickle friendship filled with meaningless greetings and occasional talks."
"But-"
"Don't take it personally," I walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder, "At least you had the guts to ask me the first place."
I then walked past him and headed towards the the auditorium, leaving the emotionally confused Kaiton frozen in time.
***
I made my way towards the auditorium with confident strides, though as I neared the auditorium entrance and found myself standing in front of the doorway, I froze in my tracks.
'Oh, I'm already here.'
The large burgundy doorway loomed over me and beckoned me forth, but when I reached for the doorknob my hand suddenly stopped mid-motion.
Twitch, Twitch, Twitch.
My fingers were trembling. I quickly retracted my hand and gazed at my quaking fingers, intently staring at the familiar scene before grabbing my hand and squeezing it tightly.
'C'mon, you got it.'
I then lifted both of my hands and slightly slapped my cheeks. As my hands fell, I drove every thought of anxiety or failure I had into the deepest delves of my mind. Now, all that remained on my face was a cold-indifferent stare.
'Focus as sharp as a blade; composure as calm as the breeze.' I recited the lines in my head before I confidently grabbed the door knob and twisted it open.
The auditorium was a spacious room that housed well over a thousand seats. Presumably, the auditorium itself was manually built by Augmenters that specialized in earthen manipulation, and the seats themselves were all weaved by the finest SAORI weavers in Japan.
I made my way towards the front of the room where my seat lied. Unlike the rest of the chairs in the room, which were colored a space-grey, the front 100 chairs were colored a unique light crimson that was very easy to differentiate from the rest. My seat was towards the middle of the row, so I was somewhat thankful that the row wasn't too packed with people yet. I scooted past the few people in the row and when I arrived at my seat I found that it was coincidentally right next to Liu Xiu Wei.
I did a quick double-take on the nametag but since I had little faith that there was another 'Rei Sato' inside the building, I begrudgingly sat down. I might've put aside my grudge due to his obliviousness, but that didn't mean I'd like to see him every single second of my life.
I let out an audible sigh. 'Why do I have to be next to all the noisy people.'
"Do you resent me that much for taking your scholarship that you hate being next to me?" I heard the question ring out from the seat beside me.
"Liu I don't exactly resent you, though I would be lying if I said I didn't hold a slight grudge."
"I can live with that; however, since we are the 1st and 2nd ranked students it would be for the best if we didn't want to murder each other."
The lights in the room started to dim, so I turned to Liu and raised my pointer finger towards my lip.
"We'll talk about this later." I mouthed.
As light completely faded from the room, the stage lit up in front of me. Appearing from behind the curtain, a burly older man with short platinum hair and smooth, alabaster skin walked towards the microphone stand. He adjusted the sleeves of his black tuxedo before tapping the microphone once.
"It seems that we are ready to begin," he said in a hoarse voice, the sound reverberating across the entire room.
"My name is Albert Serrano, the vice-headmaster of this institute, and it is my pleasure to welcome the Class of 2240 to the brilliant and illustrious school of New Ragna."
A round of applause echoed out for a few seconds before the older man on the stage raised his hand, silencing them all in an instant.
"I'm sure you all know why you're here. You're here, to learn; to create life-lasting bonds; pursue the things you could only dream about as a child; and of course, make your name known across the country. But in order for all of that to happen, you must stay focused. While this may be a school, first and foremost this is an augmentation research institute. Researching to create your augment is a grueling and tedious task, but your ability to power through obstacles and challenges in your way will be what defines you as a New Ragna Student.
He paused for a second, his eyes scanning the front row of the room.
"Only the best of the best will put their name on the map, so I wish you all good luck and hope that you all strive to become the best version of yourself imaginable."
Albert stepped back from the stand and gave a slight bow. In an instant, the room erupted in applause. Whistles and claps rang out from the chairs as students from all around the room stood up in cheers.
'Ah, it's over already?" I thought to myself.
I glanced to my left and right, and unsurprisingly none of the students in my row had moved a single muscle. Their eyes were fixated on the man behind the stand, and only when he walked towards the back-curtains did their eyes finally falter.
"Well, that was a fun show."
As applause rang out from around me, I quickly got up from my seat and made my way towards the auditorium exit.
'You can cheer all you want,' I thought to myself. 'An impassioned speech can only rouse the soul into action, not change it completely to stave off future inaction.'
I gave one good look at the students sitting in the front row of the auditorium before leaving and heading towards my classroom. In my mind, only 99 of the currently enrolled student base had the capacity to oppose me. If I could beat Liu, I'd be the best one here.
I grit me teeth. I will surpass all of you, I swear.
With that resounding declaration, I headed towards the International Wing with vigor imbued in my every step.