His dreary hazel eyes stare blankly toward the front of the classroom where a large holographic board displays the name of Ms. Stregnis. He looks as though he has faced the most vicious beast he has ever dealt with and survived, though not unscathed. It does not make it better as Ludio, who was right beside the poor fellow, begins to poke his cheek.

  “Hey Alder, you there buddy?” He whispers to not get any attention from the other classmates while continuing to gently nudge on the cheek. “C’mon, wakey-wakey…”

  “Dude, I don’t think he’s gonna come out of that expression, so please, can you stop poking him…” Nemo the good man trying to reason with the jerk.

  But he continues to poke.

  “C’mon Alder, get over it, man…”

  “Ludio Oona!”

  Ludio freezes and turns towards Ms. Stregnis with her stern eyes.

  Ms. Stregnis seems to look more like a recent graduate that is taking her first teaching gig, but her demeanor says otherwise. With her eyes telling the class she means business.

  “I know that this is the first day, but please refrain from doing that, or I might give you an early detention.”

  Ludio stares at Ms. Stregnis and then looks at the distraught Alder. He grins and turns back to the teacher and quietly chuckles. “Heh, Alright Ms. Stregnis. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” His grin leaves her having a bit of doubt about his character.

  “Ahem…” She pulls out a digital tablet and presses something that makes the holographic screen change into what appears to be information such as types and disciplines along with a photo of her on the upper left side. This goes with the following:

  A couple of gasps and surprised by the information displayed on the screen, especially the status section. Some of them muttered to each other about the crazy percentage of some of them.

  “What the hell kind of stats are those?!” a student blurted out.

  “How about you let me explain and listen, also, language…” she clears her throat and continues,“Okay i like to start over, I am Ms. Stregnis and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the next four years. As you can see from the screen, this is a digital ID that you will be using during your time here. It will be placed on an app that has already been installed into your phones as you entered this campus.”

  “Installed?” a bunch of the students either shouted or muttered and scrounged their pockets to see if it was true. Which it was. The app had already been installed and automatically logged on the moment they pressed it. Inside it shows the exact format and details that are shown on the holographic screen. Though with different information on each person, of course.

  “You will be required to hold on to that digital identification as it is important for getting things off your necessity; which I’m referring to buying lunch, shopping in the student store, and other needs or prerequisites that need to verify your identity. It also acts as a payment card, so this would be quite a convenient tool for you to have. If you were to lose it, well all I could say that is we’re not at fault for you losing your ID, which I want to put emphasis on that also means losing your phone.”

  “Okay, so what does that mean if we do lose it?” the male student with the amber hair asks.

  “If that happens, then you are to take a facial scan when entering the campus and doing other activities. Just don’t lose it…” She gives a stern gaze as the students listen with pan-dead expressions and some whisper to their next-door neighbors about off-topic subjects.

  “Now, as for what you are seeing, these are the information that everyone will be able to see, like what kind of adept you are, your abilities, weapon usage, and most importantly your status percentage,” She points on each section and continues, “You may be wondering about the percentages, you will learn them later on. But to simply put it, it displays your strengths and capabilities. As you can see it can go even above a hundred, once again you will learn about them in time," Everyone looks at each other with concern, which is fair as not everyone would like to share their personal strengths and weaknesses.

  “On other things, I would like to have you introduce yourselves while I provide the ID info of the speaker.”

  Everyone sitting upright, silently staring at her as though this is something they have never heard before. Introducing yourself over a crowd of people with opinions of certain beliefs and biases. To them and each other, it is something they really do not want to participate in and get to know the “other” than their own groups. It is simple, but at the same time alienated.

  No one spoke out, no one moved a muscle. Just utter noiselessness in the classroom that usually has people talking, gossiping, and muttering behind their teacher’s backs. But no student even tried to not get her attention.

  Stregnis sighs with a thumb and finger pressing onto the forehead out of frustration. She seems to understand the reason for the silence. But for her as a teacher out of duty to help students and prepare them for the future, the first step is the tension between the groups and trying to make them open to themselves.

  “...I can see that this is uncomfortable to do, but this is a safe place for you all to do what you want without repercussions. Let’s make a classroom rule, we promise to not ridicule or harm anyone no matter who they are. So who will take the first step?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Still, there was silence. Nobody has moved an inch, and some can be sweating out of anxiety.

  The boy with gray hair sat there without any change.

  The girl with the black short hair shifted her eyes back and forth to see who would go first.

  All the while, Alder is still dazed by the troubles of his inevitable dilemma.

  But some eventually stood up, and it was not Ludio, but Nemo who raised his hand with no fear. Though to his peers, he seems to act bravely in appearance and may be feeling anxious about all of the attention right toward him.

  “I… would like to go first, I may not be a person of special quality after you see who I am, but…”

  The holographic board in front displays the following info and Nemo continues.

  “My name is Nemo Ambros, it’s nice to meet you all. As you can see I am a Non-adept, but that wouldn’t stop me from interacting with you all, so I hope we get along with each other.”

  “Huh, his stats show question marks, Ms. Stregnis what does that mean?” the boy with fair skin and smooth blonde hair sitting within the Chi-adepts asks.

  “That is a good question, for the time being the school staff is currently working on your measurements as we speak, I assure you that you will be able to see them within about a week or so.”

  Everyone’s reaction turns from silence to quiet whispers about this revelation. Seems that everyone is calming down and slowly back to their usual selves.

  “...Well I guess I should pick the next person since it seems we're not comfortable adding anything, right Miss Stregnis?” Nemo responds calmly.

  This surprises Stregnis with how formal Nemo performs and suggests. She seems to be glad of someone taking the lead. “Uh yes, Nemo, that is a good suggestion, now please pick the next student.”

  He looks around and sees all of them sweating, a girl of darker skin with puffy hair shivering and not any eye contact with him. And right in front of her is the student with gray hair that has no reaction and who is also not looking at him. Finally making his decision he pointed in the direction of the gray-haired stranger and called out.

  “How about you?”

  Without even looking at Nemo, the gray-haired student pulls away from the chair and stands while one girl beside his right side a girl giggles, and the other girl behind him creaks as if she was standing on a tombstone with the undead rising from the grave. He turns around and stares at everyone with an expressionless face, which seems to have the effect of people slowly backing away while still in their seats. The display screen board changes to the following text with the facial picture.

  “My name is Floyd Hamamoto…” He only says that everyone was waiting but he did not try to add anything else. Another strange fellow account to the likes of Ludio, though one’s jerk and Floyd an oddball.

  “So that’s your name…” the girl with double layer brown and yellow hair quietly smirks.

  But that is not all that piques their curiosity.

  “Wait,” The girl from the middle says while raising her hand. “So I can see the label of ‘discipline’ to be the same, but ‘ability type’?”

  “Good observation,” Stregnis remarks with respect. “As you can see, since the three powers have their independent aspects, like mana with the elements, there are going to be differences in how we measure such power. We will be learning about Psion and its basis next week. So Floyd, now choose the next person.”

  Floyd stares with dull eyes, turning left to right as though examining who he should target next. Without looking, he points at the girl who questioned the labeling.

  The girl who is the center of attention within the Chi-Adepts had a glowing smile that anyone would feel warm and soothing. There is something that makes her look almost like an actress, but also has such pure expression about it. “Alright, guess I’m going next.”

  “My name is Madeline Yin, but you can call me Mady for short if you want.” She expresses in the merriest way that brings the hearts of many (mostly boys) closer to such a snuggly feeling.

  Her group of friends all clapped simultaneously, almost as though very cult-like, but family-friendly.

  The others are either in awe of what just happened and some looking up at the screen again and are curious about another difference. Miss Stregnis, who saw them staring at it, tries to elaborate on the meaning of the screen.

  “Like psi-adepts, they have a different classification that makes it easier for identification, and to your benefit know who they are and what they have.”

  “Yeah, you better watch out, Mady has skills of the indomitable demon fist style!” a girl next to Madeline with white head coverings shouts as though she is declaring something as a threat.

  “She is also a three-year world martial arts champion!” Another girl with a big body and short hair assists her friend.

  “Stop it Aqsa and Paisley, jeez…” Madeline says while her face brightens like pink.

  But it doesn’t stop there, as someone else budges in.

  The guy with orange hair and a tanned complexion lifts himself out of the table and stomps one foot onto his table with a fiery impact.

  “If any of you dare try to challenge her. Just you know that I’ll stop any of you from getting near her!”

  “Hugo?!” Madeline was surprised by his aggressive tone. “Please don’t. It’s embarrassing…”

  “Ahem!”

  But Stregnis stops her and anyone else to continue this madness. She finally gets the attention of the rest students with her stern gaze as Madeline, her friends, and especially Hugo sit back onto their seats and await her next explanation

  “At this point, you all know what you are to say, most of it at least… But we should get to the introductions in a quick fashion before this period ends, so Madeline please continue.”

  So each student had their turn and said what they wanted to say. Which was pretty dull from the most part until finally, it got to the last student.

  But the last student was still in a daze of his own world and he ignored everything until this point.

  A sound of minuscule quality gets through his head. “Alder Zephyr?”

  “...”

  “Alder!”

  The sound persists, but he does not react.

  “...”

  At that point, with a snap of finger, a large shock of lightning struck him and brought him back to reality, though without any mishaps.

  “Ahhhh?!” he screams and looks around his peers all looking at him with either confused or annoyed expressions, as though they have waited for him for a long time.

  “Alder you are the last, so please introduce yourself,” Miss Stregnis says while a bit of static electricity is left on her finger.

  “U-Uhh-what?” Alder stutters as the shock is still in effect.

  But before he could say anything else, the bell rings and brings an end to the first period of the day.

  “Well, it seems that Mr. Zephyr will have to introduce himself tomorrow… we will be learning the basics of Mana and the elements next class so make sure you read chapter 1 of your textbooks or ebooks.”

  Everyone split either giggling from Alder’s failure to do his introduction or exasperated over the assignment. They all disbursed quickly before Alder could do anything.

  “...What just happened?”

  A hand is laid on Alder’s right shoulder, the hand belonged to Ludio. “Oh, important stuff, but you don’t need to know right now. C’mon, let’s go!”

  “...Huh?!”

  Alder is dragged while still confused out of all of it, but then remembers the deal…