Kayden and Kayla had never met watch other before since a month of joining the academy. They both lived very different lives and were more invested in their goals than anything else. It wasn't until she had decided to approach him all of a sudden that he had decided to take notice of her. Of course, he knew that she was the strongest student amongst the first years, which was why he had hesitated to act after she had threatened him.
Although Kayden was confident in his strength, he knew that he wouldn't be able to win of the two had gotten into a fight. Using his inspect skill, he could see that the latter had a Mana holding capacity of thirty-five thousand, which was fourteen thousand more than his. Moreover, Kayden had seen a glimpse of what she was capable of over the past month.
He had other things he needed to focus on at the moment. This was a big day to him as well. He saw it as his chance to finally get some adequate backing to help support his uncle and cousin back at home. He knew that he wasn't enough to help protect and give them a better life with the way he was. He needed someone to assist him to make that dream of his come true.
He had trained hard everyday, pushing himself through terrible situations just to grow stronger and ensured that he would ultimately qualify for this chance, and now, there was this girl before him who seemed interested in talking with him about something that should be important.
"What do you want?" he asked, folding his arms.
Kayla looked left and right, as if checking to see if there was someone who was nearby or perhaps listening in on their conversation before turning to face him once again. Seeing the look on her face, Kayden could tell that it had to be something important, as she opened her mouth to say something else.
"I know we may not know each other, but I need your help. You may not know this, but after that day, when you held your ground against that second year student, I had been keeping an eye on you. And after monitoring your growth for a while, I've come to believe that you may just be the person I need to help me out," she said.
"Wait, if you need someone strong, then why didn't you just go and ask Paul or Shawn? They're strong. Heck, they're even far stronger than me, yet you decided to come meet me instead. Why though?"Kayden asked, confused.
Kayla seemed to be thinking to what she would say in response, before heaving out a sigh and answering his question.
"I didn't go and meet them because I don't feel like they would be able to help me as well as you would. You see, what I'm asking of you, it wouldn't just take strength to help me solve it. I'm the strongest in this set of students, yet I am unable to deal with my issues on my own. That should say something of how dire it is," she replied back.
Kayden couldn't help but agree with her logic. Still, he was being forced to listen to all of this. In the first place, he couldn't have cared less about what she had to say, only that he had to because she had threatened to beat him up if he refused to cooperate. Remembering what he had gone through in the hands of those second year students, had sent shivers down his spine, forcing him to choose reason instead of violence this time around. He wasn't ready to visit the infermary anytime soon.
"So tell me the reason why you need my help," Kayden said, tapping his feet against the floor to show that he was impatient and that she was wasting his time.
"The reason why I need your help is because, I believe that you may be connected to all of it. I know this may sound crazy, but I have a feeling that you are related to everything that is going on currently at the academy," she continued.
"Huh? What do you mean by 'related to everything that is going on at the academy,'" Kayden asked, looking confused and even lost from her explanation. "Could you please elaborate more on what it is you're trying to say?" he asked.
"I don't think this is the best place to go deeper into this discussion. I think it's best if we head over to the class and continue our conversation," she said, before gripping his wrist tightly and dragging him back towards the empty classroom, closing the door and locking it behind her.
"You can come out now," she said, and suddenly, two students had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, one of them placing his hand on the other. Letting go, the other student quickly activated his ability, and a wave of purple energy had spread across the room, before Kayla turned towards Kayden to continue what it was she was saying before.
"My friend here has just used his noise cancelling ability on this classroom, so no one outside can hear whatever we say in here. Now, I can explain to you what is really going on at this academy. At least what I know is going on. There may be things that I am still not aware of, and I hope that we may be able to get to the bottom of it all eventually. Now, have you heard of a group called Purge?," she asked.
Thinking back to his time back at home, Kayden had done a lot of research into a lot of things back then, most because he was searching for a way to aquire an ability cheaply. That was long before he had come across the Mana core than gave him his ability and system.
He was in his room casually browsing through the internet, it was then that he had read a new headline about a new gang in the city. They called themselves Purge, and Kayden had his suspecions that this gang was connected to the people who had kidnapped his sister during December last year.
"I suspect that a group of students amongst both the first and the second year students are working for this group. Now, you may be wondering why I even care about all of this. Well, the reason is because... I think that my brother is a part of this group," she said, pausing before saying the last part.
Seeing the look on her face, he could tell that she was quite worried and concerned for her brother's safety, upset that he had gone ahead and put himself in potential danger. Still, he couldn't care less about that, since he didn't even know the second year student in the first place. Moreover, the latter had tried attacking him the first day they had ever met, and was even amongst those whom had teleported him out of the academy and beaten him to a pulp before teleporting him back into the academy, placing his unconscious body against the wall in the hallway. At the end, it was the academy's nurse who had seen him lying unconscious and had taken him over to the infermary to treat his injuries.
If it were up to him, then Kayden would let whatever bad thing possible happen to Henry. After all, he deserved it, after all he and his fellow classmates had done to him to him that day. He had nearly gotten in trouble with the instructors at the magical weapons' class, and he had been introduced to pain, the likes of which he had never experienced in his life that day.
"Then what do you plan to do now that you know about this? Will you confronted your brother directly, or do you have another plan?" he asked, wanting to hear the rest of what she had to say.
Wiping away some tears which had begun to form from her eyes, she turned her head to face Kayden once again before opening her mouth to say something else.
"I have a plan, but I'm not sure if it might work. But for now, I think it would be best if we just head back outside and go join the others at the canteen. I'm afraid that if we stay here any longer, that someone might eventually pass by, perhaps searching for us, and find out that we had been here all along. Who knows what might happen then. The school authorities might decide to assign us punishment by sending us to the Arena to be dealt with effectively. I can't afford to let anything or anyone get in the way of my plans," she said, turning her head to face one of the other two students in the room who were currently assisting her to get her message across to him.
"You can cancel your ability now. We're leaving," she ordered, and the student immediately did as told, sending out another purple wave of energy across the room. Kayla, along with both students left the room soon after, leaving Kayden utterly dumbfounded by their actions.
"Just what the heck is going on right now?" he said, as he walked towards the door before exiting the classroom as well.