A week passed among various tasks, as exhausting as they were rewarding. Between the usual daily training sessions with Ri, two additional training sessions on Ka with Alice, and an easy duel he won, Shed's week went by in the blink of an eye.
'How I wish I could take a few days off,' Shed thought despondently as he lay on his bed, waiting for Alice to arrive.
However, thinking back on his progress, not just personal but also in terms of his ranking, achieved in just a week, Shed felt new strength surge within him.
He had already noticed improvements with Alice. In particular, he had become increasingly aware of his internal Ka, learning from Alice how to meditate with it even on his own. That sense of 'center' he had first perceived during their initial meeting became more familiar with each training session. Shed felt that it wouldn't be long before he could 'grasp' that center.
With Ri, the training sessions focused primarily on the voluntary use of his predictive gaze, and they were bearing more and more fruit. Shed felt his mind becoming increasingly resilient to the use of his power, and his present will more capable of activating his power at will.
As for the simple duel he won, being his 4th consecutive victory, it placed him on a streak, earning him 61 ranking points instead of the usual 51, bringing his total to 512 points.
A message from Alice snapped him out of his reverie.
'I'm outside your room,' read the message.
After a quick greeting, Alice and Shed immediately got down to business. They sat on the floor in their usual position: cross-legged, with Shed facing away from her while she placed her hands on his back.
"Sorry, Alice..." Shed broke the silence just before starting the training session.
"Mmh?"
"Could you tell me a bit more about Hope?" he asked, as he hadn't received any further information about their organization since that day.
"You're not worthy of receiving more information yet… for now, think of it as being in a probation period… The more you climb the rankings, the more you prove yourself useful… and most importantly, the more time passes without you causing any trouble, the more you'll learn about us…"
Shed did not respond or show any sign of understanding, simply staring at a wall in his apartment with a somewhat disappointed look.
"This probation period isn't only because we trust you too little… think of it as a precaution… all our members have gone through it… so don't be discouraged."
Her words comforted him a bit.
"I see… but… about your memories… have you received them?" he asked timidly.
"Yes," she replied curtly, her expression a mix of anger and sadness.
"And?" he asked simply, with a hint of nervousness, trembling as he awaited her answer.
"And what? Do you want to know about my memories? I'm sorry, but I can't talk about them… as a precaution, too," she explained.
Shed looked at her, disappointed.
"But… there are two things I could tell you," she looked at him seriously. "First of all, you should know that before the arrival of the Sleter… we humans knew nothing about skills, inner worlds, or Ka… We lived in a world that was simpler in some ways but still had many problems…"
Shed had somewhat suspected this, so he wasn't too surprised. After all, when he thought of the word "mana," which was how humans referred to something similar to "Ka," only vague memories of movies or other fictional works came to mind. Moreover, on the first day, Ri had told him that both his body and mind had been accustomed to Ka by them, and the only reason for such a procedure would be if he had never experienced Ka before.
"And second…" Alice's gaze turned dark, "…a piece of advice, not just about my memories," she looked at him with angry eyes. "Don't trust any Sleter, not even everything your Manager tells you… they act like friends… but remember they are your jailers…" she said, her tone a mixture of anger and sadness.
The weight in her voice, combined with the fury in her eyes, made her words even more impactful for Shed.
'Did Ri lie to me about something?' This question formed before all others in Shed's mind.
It was so logical… Why wouldn't Ri have lied to him about something? Why did Shed trust her so much? After all, she was Sleter, so why wouldn't she have deceived him on behalf of her people? Maybe to make him a better puppet, a better toy?
The question in Shed's mind naturally shifted. 'What did she lie to me about?' he thought, looking at Alice with a serious expression.
"And now, enough distractions," she said, changing the subject. Her voice, which had been heavy, returned to its usual sharp tone.
Shed sighed, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself and reach a good level of concentration.
Shortly after, a now familiar sensation of cold began to flow down his back. Shed perceived the 'center,' and then felt his warm Ka start to flow toward Alice's cold Ka. This time, beyond merely sensing it, he also controlled a part of that warmth.
However, his concentration drifted on its own toward that mysteriously familiar 'center,' and he felt his entire being drawn to it, as if it were a true black hole for his 'self.'
His 'self' began to orbit around that center, which became more familiar with time.
Suddenly, he felt not only conscious of his center but also as though he could glimpse it, though not with normal eyes, or at least, not the usual ones.
It was as if he was beginning to see something with an inner eye he didn't even know he had, his thinking merged with his spirit, and Shed felt his 'existence' more than ever before.
But what was this thing he was seeing if everything he saw was an infinite void? There was nothing to see, even though he was seeing… so why was he seeing?
'If I'm seeing, there must be something to see…' Shed thought unconsciously, and a warm, dim, and distant yellow light appeared before his 'gaze.'
Shed felt compelled to reach it, and at the mere feeling, he did.
The light he saw was nothing more than an enormous sphere, or rather, a desolate planet.
Shed felt he needed to get closer to that planet; perhaps the center was there, or perhaps the planet itself was the center. Feeling this and thinking it, Shed found himself walking barefoot on a stretch of pale yellow, warm sand dunes.
Shed walked, and the more he walked, the warmer the sand became, making it more pleasant to tread upon.
Everything was a desert, chaotic in its forms. The dunes continuously changed shape and position, only to suddenly and without reason revert to their original form, before shifting again in a different way, then returning to their origins… in a seemingly eternal cycle.
Shed looked at the sand around him, only to see that a path of footprints was already marked in that desert. This path of footprints, unlike the rest of the desert, seemed unchanging. On impulse, Shed decided to follow these prints, carefully placing his feet exactly in the already-made tracks.
The top of a dune, seen by Shed in the distance, seemed strange to him. It appeared to end in a point, and that point seemed glossy and more vividly colored than the surrounding desert.
Lost in staring at it, Shed misstepped, walking out of the path of footprints. Suddenly, he felt unable to keep his balance, and after several clumsy attempts to stay upright, he ended up falling, rolling awkwardly in the sand.
When he got up, that particular dune had vanished, and the path of footprints had slipped from his sight.
He looked around, disappointed, as a sense of loss crept into his mind. He felt lost, as though he had missed the chance to discover more about himself. Desperate, he dropped to his knees, striking the sand beneath him with both clenched fists.
His 'sight' grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared, and shortly after, Shed's consciousness returned to his apartment in the Colosseum.