I open my eyes to see a ceiling of white tiles. The first thing I felt is the cold breeze which I realized a moment later was due to me being covered in intense sweat from head to toe. I was on the ground in a pool of my sweat. I sit up and take a look around.
They're still in the meditation phase.
Wait...did I succeed or did I fail? All I remember is the heat and being pulled away from the source I tried to reach during the meditation. I look to the front where there is that person. The person who was sent here by the Instructor was carefully monitoring all of us.
"You have cleared the first stage. You can rest 47," he said.
I see. That is indeed good news. From the looks of it, I am the first person to clear the first stage. I stood up to leave and wait for them to clear this stage as well.
On my way out from the corner of my eye, I could see Kelan break out of his meditation. You are making it hard for me not to laugh here.
Well, at least I do not have to worry, this test does not have any penalties, so even if they fail now the consequences won't be that much.
I turned on the fan in the room to evaporate the sweat. This sucks. All my clothes are now gonna stink on the way. I better get up early to secure my turn on the laundry or otherwise, it would be chaos like yesterday.
"Ah... it feels so nice now. I was getting annoyed by all that heat there"
Speaking of which, it seems clearing the first stage won't be much of a challenge. We are one step closer to learning the use of Kai. Our problems start right after we learn Kai.
Any unidentified Kai users are treated as criminals…depending upon the situation, it is a crime punishable by death.
"The moment we learn its use, there is no going back."
It certainly isn't like we can un-learn it or anything.
We also know that there are measures to detect the presence of Kai by authorities from the administration in almost every country in the world.
"You go out blazing and you're screwed" We also have to strategize how we use Kai while dealing with demons and so much other stuff.
"Just thinking about these things is frying my brain," I said as I buried my face into the mattress.
"What are you thinking about?" I turned to see the ever-cute face of Ichika although this time she was covered in sweat too.
"Nothing...Just the heat is getting to my head," I replied.
We had an argument yesterday and she ran away all angry at me. God knows the effort I had put in to make it up to her.
She found herself a place beneath the fan, where the current would bring about most of the convection we needed to get the sweat off our bodies. Since I had used the same thought process before, we ended up sitting near each other. Our bodies were covered in sweat from the meditation phase and her body odor inevitably reached my nostrils. It wasn't unpleasant in the slightest. More than anything it made me curious about the mechanism behind it.
The normal speculation would be a deodorant or an antiperspirant, but did we have the funds to buy these things? I am not sure. I want an answer but I am too embarrassed to ask a girl.
"You finished first in the test. How was it?" Ichika asked me.
It seems she is unaware of the thoughts in my head. It's best if it stays that way.
"I believe we all experienced more or less the same stages during the meditation phase."
"Yeah... that sensation of heat and the pull you had to resist all the time wasn't easy at all."
We were able to do this because we had proper instructions and someone looking over the entire time. This leads me to ask another important question that had just popped up in my mind.
"The Instructor sent us a person who is capable of teaching Kai. Thoughts?" I asked her.
"Yeah. Normally I wouldn't have paid attention to it but after reading the reports from Taylor, I realized that teachers of Kai aren't easy to find at all."
Reports said that the knowledge, as well as the teaching process, is kept under strict observation. Anyone can't just teach Kai to anyone.
"All it means is that the higher-ups have a proper connection that allows them to manipulate people and their actions while avoiding the consequences at the same time."
It wasn't anything urgent but I realized that keeping an eye on Simon might lead us one step closer to figuring out the identity of the instructor. But that was as far as we should go on this topic now. If we are not careful, we might leak the information to them considering the location we are in.
"I heard you got confessed the other day. Who's the lucky guy?" I shifted to a more casual conversation topic.
"Where did you hear that from?"
"It has been spread in all of our classes you know. One of the friends of that guy leaked it," that's what I was told by Chizuru at least.
"I did reject him in the end. I am not in a position or the mood to enter a relationship right now" Whenever we talk like this, I always end up thinking that this girl is too mature for her age.
Even now talking about the possibility of romance and other things she isn't flustered in the slightest. Most of the people I know will either get too excited and spill the beans, or they might get all embarrassed about this stuff. In some cases, a person might even build a wall to protect their privacy or something.
"The leaders do not have time to be engaged in such things," she continued as if topics like this were trivial to her.
"Hey, I wanted to ask why you were late for that meeting before."
Dammit. I had hoped for that to just fade away. Not good... I have to maintain a calm expression not to give myself away.
"Well, you see... It was the usual shenanigans of Kelan which we may not participate in but we find entertaining," I lied but at the same time maintained an expression that said I wasn't prepared for this. All to deceive her.
"Hmmm... " She eyed me as if trying to decipher my expression.
"By shenanigans are you referring to the time he caused a fight in school or the time he stole a laundry machine?"
"As I said, none of us were part of it but we do find it funny whether he succeeds or fails."
"Why don't you stop him from these things?"
"It's a nice way to distract yourself...or one could even say Kelan was always like this even before we knew him."
None of us knew each other before the screening ever began. Who knows what Kelan was like before? I mean I can tell now after witnessing his actions but it's entertaining so we have our fun when we want it.
As the two of us were slowly getting drowned in casual chatting, the door opened to reveal Colin, who was followed by Alex and Katie. At first glance, it looks like the three of them had come here together but in all honesty, they just completed the test nearly at the same time as each other.
In a few minutes, most of the students were already there except a few. It took some more time for them to complete the test.
After everyone had arrived, Simon came in to address us.
"The Instructor told me all of you would complete the training easily. It seems he wasn't lying,"
I don't particularly recall seeing Simon during the screening.
"Before we proceed to the second stage, I would like all of you to practice as much as you can today about the basics of meditation and sensing Kai. All of you are free to attend to your regular duties."
Finishing his business here with those words, Simon left the training grounds for us to do the rest and leave this place.