Zen couldn't believe he had overslept, it had never happened before. If he knew that girl was thinking the same thing he'd nearly groan from annoyance. As they both ran to their respective locations they both halted and noticed that their hoodies wre no longer covering their faces.
Zen thought for a few seconds and it didn't seem like the girl saw his face however he hadn't seen her's either. Thinking this to be right Zen continued his run. The girl who was thinking something similar couldn't help but complain that she hadn't seen his face but her upset expression was soon replaced by a smile
"Well if he's going to the academy I'll see him again. I don't know why but he looked familiar for some reason " said the girl not realizing that she was talking about how he looked without having seen his face. She looked down to her hand which she had touched him with. It was the part of her body that had stayed numb the longest and even now it still tingled a little.
Shaking her head she decided to hurry back home before her siblings got too upset. As she was about to keep going a voice suddenly called out to her
"Hey what are you daydreaming about? Get in here" . The girl turned around and saw a luxurious expensive looking car. She groaned and complained seeing the flashy car
"Sis couldn't you have picked something less.... that?. Everyone's gonna know who we are"
" And how exactly is that my problem?" Asked the person in the car nonchalantly before she yelled out
"Get in already you're late"
The girl could only sigh at her sister's attitude and get in the car while moaning
" It's not like they'll dare do anything if I'm late"
" Yeah ,but mom and dad will "
Zen on the other hand was already on the other side of town running with keen concentration , taking shortcuts whenever he could and revealing he was quite good at parkour and acrobatics doing flips and jumps whenever he wanted to save a few extra seconds. He had to get to the city's subway which would take him to the edge of the city where he would register to be tested for admittance. Unlike most other academies sentinel academy was a military school so the admission process was anything but easy. It was the military's top school and was much more popular than most other ones however in this case it was no longer a matter of choice for Zen. Due to the law all young people of around Zen's age had to register at either a military academy or a private one. Although according to the law each school had to accept every student, the testing process was more of a way to get rid of the chaff and many would even die but even then there would be dozens who just got lucky and even more that got in through nefarious means. The school itself actually encouraged this as anyone who was clever enough to go through such a method had at least some potential for grooming.
After a few minutes of running Zen had gotten to the subway station. He had quickly gotten in nearly missing the train by a hair's breadth as the door quickly shut behind him .
Zen took a deep breath. That dash through the city had affected his breathing but it was nothing too serious. He found an empty seat and sat down. The trip would take about thirty minutes so he could rest a bit. Zen remembered that girl and suddenly realized that she was right,if he had taken the stairs he would have missed the train. He looked at his hand which still had the faint feeling of pins and needles.
" What was that? It looked like she felt it too. (Sigh) If that system was here it might have been able to help"
Thinking of that Zen suddenly decided to check how much time he had left before the system returned. He looked at his watch and determined that he had about three to four hours to wait.
"It seems it won't return before the assessment begins , well i wasn't planning on relying on it anyway" thought Zen.
About a minute later Zen suddenly fell asleep. This was different from the sleep he had just woken up from. There was something strange about this slumber.
Zen's face constantly kept changing almost like he was having a nightmare. A while later Zen's eyes burst open and flashed with a strange glow as he woke up , his face was dripping with sweat like he had just ran a marathon. As soon as awoke the train came to a stop and Zen realizing this was his stop he quickly ran out while suppressing the questions in his heart about what he had just seen.
Zen was getting more and more annoyed with this. He was used to chaos but the confusion and lack of knowledge was what was bothering him.
"What was that, I feel like I've seen that darkness before but why...."
Zen suddenly halted as he felt a shooting pain in his mind that made him want to scream out in agony.
He had to stay still for a few minutes before the pain dissipated. Zen kept huffing and panting due to the after effects of the pain. It wasn't just physical pain, if it was Zen could simply have brushed it off but for some reason he couldn't.
Trying to clear his head Zen closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, his eyes looking even more tired due to what he'd seen.
"I don't have time to figure this out now" those were Zen's words as he once again released the holographic map of the city and checked how far he was from where he needed to be.
He quickly noticed that he simply needed to go straight ahead for a few minutes and he'd be there. Zen turned off the hologram before he made his way to the location marked on the map.
About ten minutes later Zen found himself directly in front of a large inconspicuous building. He once again confirmed that this was the place before stepping in through the automatic doors.
As he stepped in zen was greeted by the sight of what looked to be a receptionist office . He took a few steps to the front desk where he saw a woman that couldn't be too much older than him with short orange colored hair, light brown eyes and dressed in a uniform with an insignia Zen knew wasn't of sentinel academy. She looked bored and a little grumpy,a feeling she didn't mask at all. She had her head down as she seemingly worked on something on the computer in front of her, She had sensed Zen's presence when he walked in despite not actually seeing him.
Without looking up to see him she pointed at a chord on the table and said
"Link your watch into the system"
Zen did as he was told happy to keep this as quick as possible.
A few seconds later the screen in front of the girl changed to one displaying Zen's stats. Instead of looking at those she turned to look at look at Zen.
"You're late kid" were the words on her mind but seeing Zen's current state she held her tongue and simply sighed. Zen was currently drenched in sweat and panting profusely although mostly because of what happened in the train.
The woman's gaze on Zen suddenly sharpened as she felt Zen's energy. She didn't know why but this kid's energy was just ridiculous, she wasn't shocked in the quantity but in it's quality, the aether in this boy was pure to an unnatural degree. She couldn't help but be reminded about her own place which was filled with people like that and even the kid who was joining the academy today,as she did she suddenly remembered why she was upset and her grumpy expression returned.
She looked away from Zen and at the screen and indeed it said he was awakened but hadn't been registered in an awakening center.
"An automaton? That's rare"
An awakening center was where people of fifteen years of age and above went to go through the awakening process to awaken aether which powered their abilities. Before reaching this age people could still learn abilities and were able to use them through the use of the watch. The watch itself was powered by the aether of it's wearer so it never needed to be recharged and the amount of aether it took was so insignificant that even a newborn could take it, as such people were given the watches from birth. The most valued function of the watch was arguably its ability to let the unawakened harness their abilities. Aether from an outside source like a battery or aether storage would be infused into the watch and this would give the unawakened wearer a limited time use of the ability to the unawakened wearer. The government had actually set up centers which gave an allowance in the form of aether to unawakened children below the age of seventeen. Kids could also be given aether by their parents to use their abilities if needed, however it was all for a limited time before the watch needed to be recharged. All of this was to give children the ability to defend themselves if needed and to give them the experience of actually having an ability before they awakened and had to go to an academy.
Nora looked at Zen's file and could see that he had never gone to receive his monthly aether allowance, Infact he had never step foot in a awakening center before. Although it seemed strange she didn't bother herself about that and had a bright smile as she realized the kid was an automaton.
"Looks like this one's gonna be alright" . Those were here thoughts before she saw the rest of the list especially the one that said relations. Everything was blank, he had no parents,no guardians no friends. There wasn't even what school he went to, he was like a ghost. The file didn't even have his date of birth or even what planet or city he was born, there was only his name and the fact that he had awakened.
"Oh no"
She looked at Zen who was slightly confused, she suddenly began to stare at him for a bit too long with a strange look in her eyes . Nora looked at the boy and couldn't help thinking she had seen him before but she simply shrugged it off and averted her eyes from him as she decided to introduce herself
" Greetings Zen, my name's Nora. I'm guessing you're here for the assessment. "
Zen simply nodded.
"Good, come with me " . Said Nora as she led Zen to another room in the building which resembled a hotel room.
"It's my job to ensure that each participant is in top form before they leave this place . This was done in consideration of this year's test. That door leads to a bathroom, now go freshen up you look terrible and don't complain just do it" she said pointing to a door with a commanding tone.
Zen didn't have any complaints and went in although feeling skeptical about something. How crazy did the test have to be for it to be mandatory for them to show up in top condition?, simply the thought of it caused Zen to sigh.
A few minutes later Zen came out of the bathroom with his hair still a bit wet and put on his old clothes. Looking at his clothes he noticed something different and looked for Nora to ask about it.
The moment Nora saw him she once again felt a familiar feeling but shrugged it off.
"Now isn't that better?, you look much more appealing now. Who knows you might even take'n. break a few young girls' hearts at the academy"
Instead of feeling flattered or simply ignoring Nora's joke Zen suddenly felt a chill go down his spine for a reason only him and perhaps a few other people knew.
Zen simply shook it off and was about to ask her but she suddenly interrupted him
"You wanna ask about the clothes, right?"
Zen nodded. When he had gotten here his clothes had been covered in dust sand, it was also a bit wet , mostly from last night's rain.
Nora simply smiled
"I won't tell you " she said a bit playfully but resolutely. Hearing that, Zen didn't bother asking again and simply asked what he was to do next.
"Oh yeah, there's a portal in the next room with the fixed location being not too far outside the city, It'll take you out of the city and to the testing site in a matter of seconds but before I send you on your way you should know something". Her tone suddenly became grim
"Usually, being an automaton would be a good thing but for you it's simply a curse. You need to watch yourself at all times because you have no one to support you and no one is gonna watch your back for you not even the academy so don't be fooled by any of their empty promises. If you aren't careful because if not you'll be hunted down and swallowed up as everyone who can will stop at nothing to get you... especially the academy. Usually i would tell you to stand alone but seeing as you have no one to support you or protect you that would be counterintuitive" Nora had said all this believing that she was helping Zen and truly Zen had listened to her words and although he knew she was right he wasn't going to take her advice, he wasn't too worried about the academy, his main problem was actually getting in. That place hadn't been able to break him so he highly doubted a few kids could .
Nora looked at Zen trying to find any reaction, perhaps surprise or fear but she could see none. A bit reassured she led him to the room with the portal generator which looked like a giant circular metal frame and switched it on. The inside of the circle which was originally empty was suddenly filled with a white light that hung to the edge of the inside like a curtain or sheet of light.
"Oh yeah I almost forgot, take this,you're gonna need to stay hydrated. That's all I can say " said Nora as she passed him a water bottle. Zen although confused about why she was clearly being nice to him decided to take it and ask no questions.
"Well of you go then, good luck I'll be rooting for you "
Zen didn't know what to say and simply nodded before he began walking into the portal.
At an unknown location
"Hey Crowley, do you think Zen's prepared for that stupid sentiment academy or whatever it's called?"
"Heh, I'm more worried they aren't prepared for him, he survived this place after all even if a small piece of him died doing it "
Raven, hearing that looked at her brother with a knowing but at the same time questioning look.
"Fine I'll admit it,a large piece of him died"
Raven started giggling as she heard what her brother said.
Crowley smiled and his gaze fell on the table filled with Zen and the "others" stuff and suddenly noticed something amiss
"Where's the star?" He asked
"Huh?"
"Zen's star, where is it? He never lets the damn thing out of his sight". Raven looked towards the table and suddenly noticed as well.
"I don't know, I looked everywhere and this is everything i found, well except for his game, i have that. Maybe it's with him"
Although his sister said that, Crowley couldn't help feeling something amiss