"Damn it! That's wrong" Joshua shouted in protest, conveying what majority of the class felt.
"That... was too hard." Maya chimed in, her expression a bit worried.
Liam's breathing was even, yet anyone could feel the simmering rage within him.
Hazel's face was dark as she felt a foreign surge of anger and confusion.
Anger because of how Logan had been treated and confusion because of the sympathy she was feeling.
She looked to her right seeing both of her male friends with absurd expressions. Kuramoto looked like he was struggling to form a worried expression while Kaiser simply made no effort to change his blank expression.
"Pathetic." She snorted.
"You look like you've improved socially" Kaiser only gave her a blunt observation which shut her up perfectly.
"How?" After a moment of silence, she asked.
"By sharing public sentiment" He answered.
"I-i didn't" She stuttered in denial.
Pat! Pat!
She froze when she felt the gentle pat on her head.
"You're improving" Kai's voice was softer as he praised her.
Her face quickly turned red as she brushed off his hands and walked away too fast.
"You two... I'm jealous" Kuramoto muttered.
Kaiser simply gave him a dead look and raised his hand.
Understanding his intentions, Kuramoto quickly swatted the hand away with a disgusted expression.
"Eww..."
...
"All students, please gather around!"
An announcement was made and all the freshman students quickly gathered in the hall.
Colonel Miguel was waiting silently with his hands behind his back. Although it seemed like he was relaxing, he was actually gauging the battle auras of the cadets in case of a hidden gem.
His senses caught Apollo's figure which seemed to be burning in purple flames. Another girl from Class-C also had a high aura colored pink like her hair. Liam from Class-D also burned bright yellow, his presence definitely imposing. A lot more were scattered throughout the different classes, surprising him at how talented this generation was.
Suddenly, his instincts flared as he caught two anomalies from Class-D. One was Kuramoto Daisuke with calm and controlled grey aura. What really shocked him was that to be able to achieve a state of complete aura control, one had to had trained it for years. He couldn't believe a kid who was CHOSEN a month ago, had achieved it.
However the other was even more of an anomaly since his aura was totally empty. Not even a hint of it showed at all.
'He learned to hide it'
This realization sent him spiraling further into shock.
'Kaiser Solace'
His perception sharpened further as he tried to pierce through the veil covering it only for Kai's eyes to snap towards him with a dangerous glare that sent sweat rolling down the back of his neck. Even though he was a Rank 3 Evolved, he felt cold fear permeate his soul.
'I have to report this'
With that thought, he regained focus and realized everyone was looking at him strangely since he had been too silent.
"I believe the evaluation I've seen is enough and that you all are exceptional in your own way. Tomorrow, your training schedule would be uploaded to your phones and you'll be given access to VR practice against The Nirad Creatures.
While I'm not really optimistic, I pray every one of you survives."
With such a depressing statement, he ended the session.
...
[Class-D]
Everyone stood in small groups, discussing about their own concerns.
Kiera was sitting on her table as she listened to a group of girls discuss about the best guys in the year.
"Hey Kiera?" Maya called out to her.
"Yes?" She answered.
"You seem to be very chummy with Liam. Are you two dating?" Hana slurred, emphasizing the last word.
"Oh, that! Yeah. Sort of." Kiera confessed as her cheeks turned a shade of pink.
"Oooh! When did that start?" Maya asked excitedly.
"Last week."
"Oh my, la, la, la. What a lucky bitch you are!" Maya sneered with mock disgust causing the group to burst into a fit of laughter.
"Purr, since he's taken we don't have any other reasonable guy in our class anymore." Hana whined in sorrow.
"Oh my, that's true!" Maya said as she frantically turned her head around, trying to get a good look at the boys in her class.
"Hey what about Sebastian?" She asked.
"No way, he's too self centered and conceited" Kim protested with a shake of her head.
"Hmm, how about Joshua and Jose?"
Bonk!
Hana hit her on the head with a wooden ruler in annoyance.
"Not those two perverts, please!"
"Alright, alright. How about Chika? He's black and nice right?"
"Ne-ne. Cut it out"
"Huff, what about Kuramoto then? He's japanese and all."
"Hmm. He'd have been nice but he's not really a socialist"
"I guess there's really no one from our class then?"
At this point, Kiera's voice cut through the conversation.
"What about Kaiser?"
The whole group turned silent as they looked at her in shock.
"What?" She asked.
"I thought you hated him!" Maya almost shouted.
"Did I?" With a hollow laugh, she asked. "Sometimes I called out to him and he didn't even answer so I guess I got annoyed. After all who would accept being ignored. But I've come to realize that many people don't like bothers in their life and it was unwise to judge him without understanding his intentions"
After her speech, the whole group was silent until Maya said softly.
"You actually said something smart for the first time"
"You-!"
Again, the group erupted into laughter.