The next day was Monday, and Zeine went back to school.
To ward off the church, the malevolent clearance wielders, and La Maison d'illusions, Zeine set strict rules for himself, which includes reading maps before going anywhere, concentrate when commuting, avoiding dark places, not talking to suspicious looking people, carrying a mobile phone as a precaution, not using his clearance openly(but enjoying himself in silence all the same).
He had passed half the week in peace, discovered multiple uses for his clearance, including better comprehension in the field of delicate teenage emotions, discovering hidden feelings and hidden, unrequited love, enjoy himself by looking at underwear without feeling guilty and without showing anything on his face.
This was all very good for gossiping and making himself popular among girls, who hardly knew they were wearing bikinis, or sometimes even naked when Zeine accidentally went to the wrong layer. He felt like a pervert in the mangas, but anyone might do the same anyway and he was the carefree type so he didn't feel guilty at all.
What was better was his guitar training, he could find the rhythm quicker and easier with the aid of his clearance, and his performance was a lot more moving. It was a very nuanced bit of music, handling emotions, Zeine had been a skill-oriented type but he could now grasp the emotions clear as day and make everyone resonate internally with whatever emotion he tries to convey.
With all of this, life was great back in school, actually it was far better than before, he genuinely wanted to thank A.D. for this tremendous change.
"Helicopters of the church had landed in New Quay! This has irritated many citizens, a recent servey showed that 97% of Nea Quay residents reject their coming."
The camera then turned to random pedestrians being interviewed.
"We don't welcome religion here in New Quay, and they actually have weapons?"
"They shouldn't be here, we do not believe in their god, everyone knows how violent they were in the warring states period, and half of the districts in other regions are almost totally under their grasp now, we couldn't let that happen to New Quay!"
"They have been trying to gain power in the Congress for a long time, can you imagine what they will do if they succeeded? We should demonstrate on the streets and force them to leave!"
Zeine watched the news on the sofa, it was weekend, and his comfortable life has been quite secure and is expected to perpetuate, the church wouldn't find him anyway. But, like most of the residents of New Quay, he detested them.
China region had never had an overpowering religions faction, or real religion, at all, for that matter. Religion was considered as things from the outside. And although they allowed outsiders into their city in New Quay, it didn't mean they would accept their ways.
"However, against the fury of the crowd, the nomarch of China region is planning to recieve the executives of the church in person and offer the highest level of regard. What are the odds of the church continuing its stay in New Quay, and what will it mean to our dear citizens? We have invited Mr. Ian Lin, renowned political analyst, professor of the prestiged Peking Institue of Science and Technology to share his opinion. Please Mr. Lin."
"The church has been expanding fast the past years, driving its claws deep into the hearts of South Hemisphere Region, Europe Region, and parts of West Region, dominating key sectors of technology, production, finance, and politics, they are officially allowed to use military weapons when the need arises..."
"Their purpose here is to expand their power, which is totally legal, but the Regional government of Northeast Region has their military and economy in good hands, we will not worry about them flustering our consumer prices by economic intervention. And their expansion will face difficulties from all sectors as doubt and mistrust cast upon them is as present as ever, and more importantly, we can look back to a few weeks ago when the emperor disclosed his personal view of the church. We may expect some actions on his side..."
Zeine yawned, he didn't believe the church could set up a base in New Quay or, indeed, any part of China district so near the imperial guard City where the emperor lives, an emperor that viewed them with suspicion and was out-spoken on his negative views of them.
The weekends passed in a blur and no further news of the church reached him or stirred up any discussion. The public discourse soon redirected itself towards a nineteen-year-old idol who was exposed of having secretly given birth to twins two years ago, after being found murdered on her doorsteps.
Zeine heard some of his friends talking animatedly about the subject as he came to school.
"Hey, Zeine!" Mark, his pal waved at him.
He joined their coterie and conversed with them.
"Eventful weekend huh! Zeine." Someone poked him.
"Nothing related to us, the church and the superstar have no business to do with me." said Zeine with a shrug.
"No, not that! Its a new animated series, the summer dreams has released its third episode! and the trailer showed Toksaki Mona, she's back in the series bro!" said a plump boy with black rimmed glasses.
"Yeah, so they did." replied Zeine carelessly.
"You're such a loser bro, nobody will notice it even if they substitute you with an artificial intelligence agent someday." said Mark.
"Who's going to do that?" inquired Zeine as he waved back to a pack of girls looking and waving at him.
He grinned at them, he knew exactly what kind of grin charmed them the most now with his new ability, the light illumination around them where there would be the clearance field of a clearance wielder signified emotions and attitudes.
Thanks for the bikini treats, his grin couldn't have been wider.
"Look at that pervert! How could someone like you be surrounded by girls every day!" scowled his ignored companions. "Did you blackmail everyone of them?"
"I am simply being myself!" snapped Zeine indignantly.
"Attention! folks! What's this unhealthy fetish for girls in the three-dimensional world? Anyway, we were talking about Zeine being substituted!" cried the plump boy with black rimmed glasses, waving a poster of Toksaki Mona.
He had Toksaki Mona on his shorts too, thought Zeine in disgust, after days of examination, he found that everyone was kind of perverted deep down, except for himself, who eavesdropped on and observed everyone and shook his head in dismay with secret exhilaration at their obcene inner-self.
"Yes! I was just talking about that." said Mark.
"You know what they're saying in the security department? Those rumors about some workers being substituted?"
Mark's father worked in the security department and he always had interesting but exaggerated and "confidential" intelligence, which were fun to listen to and talk about, it provided good materials for daydreams and interesting things to think about when you don't want to pay attention to class.
"Really! Tell us more!" everyone turned to Mark expectantly.
Zeine checked, Mark only wanted to feed his enormous vanity, but he was telling the truth.
"Come on! Spit it out!" he joined the chorus.
"Oh, but it truly is confidential this time, dad told me not to tell anyone about it! Unless..." Mark's expression darkened dramatically, shook his head and signed, he looked at them hestitantly.
He was having fun, observed Zeine. And the bell rang inconveniently.
"D**n it!" spat someone and they left and headed for their seats.
Mark was seated right beside Zeine, normally Zeine would take advantage of this and beg Mark to tell him so he could be one of the knowing guys and enjoy the feeling of being more informed while others beg him to tell.
But now he knew Mark was bursting to say it to someone, and begging him to tell it would give him more incentive to keep the suspense, so he pretended not to care, and pretended to listen.
The teacher was ill and the teacher who took his place temporarily was a very irresponsible guy. They were supposed to be learning about parabolas, but the teacher insisted on giving them an expansion on mathematical analysis.
"Complex value functions...equicontinuous functions...uniformly convergent series of functions...stone-weierstrass theorem...algebras..."
Nobody was listening. But Zeine pretended to be paying attention. In fact he was playing with Mark as he detected Mark's emotions.
Mark couldn't bear it anymore, he needed to tell someone.
"Zeine." Mark said solemnly patting Zeine's shoulders "You must hear this, it could be the most horrible thing that happened to New Quay for a century, it concerns our liberty, and democracy."
At this point Zeine knew it was time to let go of his disguise and let Mark spill the beans.
"They say," said Mark in an undertone "That it's the church's doing."
"Really?" asked Zeine, truly surprised, for he knew Mark wasn't lying, and he had proof strong enough to convince himself.
"It was after an executive of the church delegation visited the security department, and all of the workers who ever talked to him were sick immediately after he left and went home. The next day, all these people acted as if they were possessed."
"What? Shouldn't you arrest him?" asked Zeine.
"They tried investigating, but that delegate was really creepy, and he had a bunch of strange people guarding him, and they looked as if they'd really fight the police if anything occurs."
replied Mark.
"How dare they? Right under the eyes of the emperor and the regional governor?"
exclaimed Zeine in a suppressed voice.
It was commen knowledge that the emperor and the governor both took personal interest in New Quay. To do something like this to the security department, not somewhere like Minkhang, was a direct provocation to the emporer and the governor.
"But they did, and nobody dares to touch them." nodded Mark as he said darkly.
"And what's more." Mark said, resuming the story-telling tone.
"There's more?" demanded Zeine.
"A deadly criminal, very dangerous broke out of prison right after the church left." said Mark excitedly.
"They say, that criminal never took off his mask and never so much as speak to anyone, he was covered in armor and would suddenly disappear for short periods of time right under the surveillance camera when nobody is looking."
"Why don't they just force him to take off his armor." asked Zeine.
"That's the weirdest part." chuckled Mark. "That's extra charge."
"KFC thursday, I'll pay the bill." said Zeine, he could have did the same trick as before and make Mark tell him that eventually, but he was really curious now and couldn't care less.
"They just can't." said Mark.
"You're tricking me?" demanded Zeine, surprised that money didn't work, but stopped as he felt Mark's emotions.
"Course not, they just can't!" said Mark shaking his head, "They tried pryinf it off, cutting it open, persuation, sound torture, electromagnetic brainwave control. And nothing worked."
The day flew by and Zeine could feel a heavy weight down his chest, Mark might think of these as a joke, but he knew there were clearance wielders, dangerous, unknown, unstable clearance wielders out there in the world, and he was sure it had something to do with these people.
"Where's he now, the rookie boy." asked Caimen dressed in tight jeans and wearing sunglasses, he had converted his appearance entirely with an artificial mask and was taking a stroll in the streets.
"On his way home." said the invisible Mona walking beside him.
"Time for the plan to begin, we'll make it extra real, the enemies misgivings come at a price." smiled Caimen.
"I'm ready." said Mona with determination in her voice.