"I need to stop waking up like this."
Kai's entire body was in pain, at least it was the ache of sore muscles and not the searing pain of poison. This time, it seemed he wasn't waking up in a hospital bed; instead, he was staring up at the bottom of a bunk bed. Looking around at the unfamiliar room he'd found himself in, Kai realized where he was. It looked as though he'd found himself in a dorm room.
The room had eight bunks, four against each side of the room, all of which had been neatly made before the occupants had abandoned the room. Each bed shared the same boring sheets, but the different quarters between them were all slightly different, even if they all shared the same basics.
'Good, that means they'll give me those hopefully.'
Kai couldn't think of the last time he had his things. After all, over the last four years, it was pretty uncommon for him and his brother to have enough stuff for him to feel comfortable keeping anything to himself. Everything he'd had was either shared or given to his brother. He didn't regret that; in fact, he might not have even realized that he wanted his things until that very moment.
Before he could spend much time considering that, though, Kai was interrupted by the sound of people approaching from the hallway.
"Liam, you said there was a new kid, right? Do you think he's going to be in our Battalion?"
A second voice.
"That's what I heard from the mess staff, not sure what company though."
Then a third.
"Well, we'll find out next week since the devil was the one who left to test him."
The first kid replied.
"Not everyone is as weak as you, Luke. I'd give him a couple of days until he gets over it. One day, if they wipe him."
By now, the first of the group reached the doorway, at which point the first of the boys had stopped, causing a bit of a stir from the people behind him.
"Noah? Dude, move, what are you doing?"
Noah looked more than a little shocked at seeing Kai. Kai hadn't expected it from the voice, but the kid was much taller than he would have expected from someone his age. Seemingly, his voice had not caught up with the boys' early growth spurt. Though that wasn't the first thing he'd thought about when Kai had first seen him. Regrettably, that honor went to Kai's assessment of whether or not he could take his new company mate in a fight.
He'd decided he probably could if only barely.
'What's wrong with me?'
But that's just how Kai's mind worked, doubly so around people his age. He'd been in too many unprovoked fights with people not to immediately size them up.
At that point, two other boys had poked their heads in, trying to get a look inside around their still unmoving friend.
"Oh shit, he's here."
That was the third person who'd spoken, the one who called Beckner the devil, which made him Luke, right? He was short with dirty blond hair and a uniform that was barely a size too big for him.
"Hey, language."
And that would make him Liam. He was only slightly taller than Luke, about the same height as Kai, give or take, although out of the three, he was the one who gave Kai the most pause. Although all three looked the same age, Liam was visibly much stronger than the rest; it was almost as if someone had shrunk a bodybuilder down to the size of a child. If the kid decided to, Kai had little hope that he could take him in a fight.
Despite freezing up a little at seeing him, Noah was the first to actually speak to Kai out of the three. It also seemed like he was the leader of the trio.
"You're the kid that just got here today, right? What's your name?"
Despite his apprehension around new people, Kai tried to lower his guard. The guy looked sincere enough, and it probably wasn't a good idea to be unnecessarily cold around the first people he met here. The problem was that Kai was not very good at talking to new people.
"I'm Kaiser, but most people just call me Kai. Noah, right?"
"Yeah, this is Luke and Liam–"
"Hey, how'd your test go? How are you awake so soon? Did the devil not kill you? Or did someone else test you?"
"Slow down, Luke, you're gonna scare him off."
"Oh, I'm not sure I passed out before it finished- Could you back up?"
The avalanche of questions didn't bother Kai much, or at least it bothered him less than the fact that Luke had run up to him to ask him them. Before Luke could respond, he was pulled backwards by his collar by Liam, who was now looking at his friend with an exasperated look.
"Excuse him, please, he just likes meeting new people."
'What is he a puppy?'
"Uh, no worries."
The three boys moved to sit across from Kaiser, all three squishing together on the lower bunk of the neighboring bed. Well, more accurately, Luke was forced to sit down next to the other two. This time, Liam was the one to speak.
"That's pretty common. Luke passed out for like a week afterwards, pretty sure he only made it into C company off how strong his skills are."
Luke looked at his friend with a mix of betrayal and dismay.
"Stop telling people that as the first thing they learn about me." However, when he turned to speak to Kai, his expression was entirely self-satisfied. "I prefer to think of it as my skills are so good that they simply had to have me in the upper program."
"Tell that to the staff that had to clean up after your spar with instructor Beckner."
"They also had to clean up after you, Liam. What are you talking about?"
Before the two could continue arguing, Noah cleared his throat to interrupt them. While they did shoot each other dirty looks, it seemed as if that was enough to make them stop.
'Is that from respect or just restraint?' Kai was somewhat interested in the three's dynamic but couldn't bring himself to ask, so he let the moment pass unquestioned.
"So, what made you come to the academy?"
Kai gauged the question for an imperceptible moment; he was still unsure of how to act around the three. What answer would give them the best impression? Or was distancing himself from them a better choice? In the end, he simply answered entirely honestly.
"I want to get stronger, and I thought this would be the best place to do it. How about you all?"
Seemingly, that answer was an acceptable one; all three of the boys nodded knowingly, but Liam in particular seemed to be looking at Kai in a new light.
"Similar reason, plus Luke wanted to attend here, so I just came as well."
"Yeah, Liam wanted to come here, so I just felt like I had to, ya know? Can't let my little brother be alone without me."
'Wait, they're brothers? And Luke is the older one?' Looking between the two, Kai didn't see the resemblance. 'I shouldn't say anything, right? That'd be what people call a fox paw, I think.'
"I want to be a Hunter, one that saves people and one people can look up to."
'He's like me.' That realization made Kai feel more sure about his decision to let his guard down a little around the trio. Noah's earnest demeanor made his words feel as though they carried all the more weight. Considering that, the fact that the other two seemed to follow and respect him so much meant that even if they didn't exactly share the same motivation as Kai, they still had common ground.
'I hope I can become friends with these three.'
***
The next hour was a whirlwind of introductions and questions as the other members of C company returned to their quarters. All of the questions were pretty similar to the questions that the trio had asked him, and Kai did his best to answer them honestly. However, the introductions were a little rougher; Kai had never been all that good with names, and that fact hadn't changed. By the time he was done, his mind was full of names and faces he couldn't connect, the only ones who had stuck were the trio, well, the trio and one more person.
Kai was bad with names; he was also not good with people, especially meeting people. But he did try; Quintine did not. In fact, it seemed like he did not try to interact with anyone; the only reason Kai knew Quintine's name was because he was his bunkmate and had practically shoved him out of the way to get to his bunk while the trio was introducing Kai to everyone else.
Besides that interaction, it seemed as though the rest of their company was pretty alright, though they all seemed pretty exhausted for whatever reason. In fact, after satisfying their curiosity about the new kid, most of them had decided to either play cards or turn in, despite how early it was. The only ones who seemed to have any energy were Kai and the trio.
"Hey, did you wanna grab dinner? The kitchen staff said they were saving food for you; that's actually how we even knew there was a new kid."
'Wait, there's free food?' Kai's stomach growled at just the thought. He hadn't eaten since he'd left the hospital this morning, so a meal sounded really good right now.
"Don't get too excited, the food here isn't much better than protein paste."
"Way to show you've never actually had protein paste, the stuff here is divine in comparison to that garbage."
Noah seemed about to shoot back a retort to Luke's comment, but seemed to think better of it.
Although they'd seemingly all just come from the mess hall, all three of them led Kai there like it was the natural thing to do. 'I guess they're showing me around cause they feel bad for me.' The thought that they'd likely stop once he got settled made Kai a little sad, but that was simply how things went; he was not the kind of person that people wanted to befriend after all.
As they walked, Noah explained to him how things worked at the academy, with Luke interjecting with his comments. Liam, for his part, only seemed to add things when Noah forgot to explain something or to respond to Luke's random jabs.
"We're a part of Charlie 4 company, which just means we're the third company in the fourth regiment. There are meant to be nine companies in each regiment, but after they became an awakened academy, there are only enough cadets for about seven each year. You can think of regiments like years and battalions like programs. Our battalion is what's called the upper program. They treat us like we'll become the best of the best.
"First battalion strives for excellence, second and third strive for competence."
"You know we're not meant to say that, plus you could be sent to the second battalion any day now, Luke."
"You say that like I'm the only one, we're all in Charlie."
"Seems a bit harsh to separate cadets like that."
"It is, but it's sort of fair, a lot of kids here don't want to become amazing hunters, they just want to make a living. And Luke isn't wrong in saying that, while we're upper program, they still treat us like we're only barely holding on. Any one of us could be sent down to Delta any day now."
'Seems stressful.' Still, Kai wasn't entirely unhappy with that arrangement; he wasn't here to become mediocre, so whatever rank he was, he'd still do his best.
"Some people," Noah shot Luke a meaningful look, "say that your company is what they think your rank will be, but I don't think that's right. It's hard to tell what their system is for deciding who goes where."
"Hey, I don't think it's the only thing that decides what rank you are, I mean, look at Q, that ba-" Luke instinctively looked at Liam as he cut himself off before continuing. "That guy is a prospective A rank, so they have to take personality into consideration as well."
"Quintin is a strange case." Luke and Noah nodded in agreement at Liam's comment, a hint of disdain in their eyes. Seemingly, Kai wasn't the only one who had a poor opinion of his bunkmate.
"He's royalty and yet he's in Charlie with the rest of us, and then on top of that, he wasn't even chosen as Commander."
"Commander is the cadet in charge of the company, right? Who is that for us?"
Liam and Luke shared a look before Luke turned to Noah, smiling.
"Let me introduce you to our wonderful, magnanimous, amazing Cadet Captain fourth class: Noah Latimer."
Noah, for his part, had found a very interesting patch of wall to look at, doing his best to ignore any bowing and saluting his excitable friend may or may not have been doing.
"Oh, wait, really?" Kai turned to Noah, ready to salute his captain.
"Don't worry about it, the military ranks and stuff are more flavor than anything nowadays, they just kept the same titles and stuff when they made this place. Our company is closer to a squad than anything else; my rank's just for show."
"Accept when there's something important to do, at which point we can only trust our beloved captain to do it for us."
Liam nodded solemnly at that.
"So, what skills do you have, Kai?"
Noah seemed intent on changing the subject, and as unsubtle as that attempt was, the question did make Liam and Luke both perk up.
"I don't know, I'm not even fully convinced I did awaken, not to mention what skills I have. Plus, since I passed out, I'm not sure they ever measured my mana or divined me."
"Oh, don't worry, I've got it right here. They can do divination and mana readings while you're passed out." Kai gave Luke an incredulous look. The boy was holding a white envelope that Kai recognized as having been in his quarters when he woke up. Since he had just woken up there, he'd assumed it was his bunk mates and hadn't touched it, but apparently Luke had thought differently.
"Luke, what did I tell you about taking people's stuff?" Liam's voice had a sort of tired exasperation to it that made Kai think this was more than a first or even second offence for Luke.
"What? I didn't open it, and he was going to forget it, so I grabbed it." Luke did his best impression of spurned innocence as he handed the envelope to Kai. It might even have been a good impression if he hadn't seemed way too excited to learn what was inside the envelope.
"It's fine, I didn't even know that was meant for me."
Taking the parcel from Luke Kai paused for a moment. This would be when he'd learn what rank he was and what skills he had. Every moment of longing and dream he'd had about being a Hunter would be made or broken the moment he opened this envelope.
'Here goes nothing.'
Chapter 8 - Awakening
The moment of truth ended up being pushed back as the four of them arrived at the doors of the mess hall, but the trio of friends still seemed to all be doing their best to hide their anticipation. Well, everyone except Luke, who seemed about ready to steal the envelope back from Kai and learn about his skills before he could. Still, he held himself back as Kai got a plate of food and joined the rest of the group at one of the deserted tables.
Setting down his food, he finally picked up the blank white envelope from where he'd placed it. As he did, Kai did his best to ignore the other three leaning forward in their chairs. The envelope wasn't sealed, which could have meant that Luke had already taken a peek at it. Then again, he wouldn't have been this excited about information he already knew, so that was unlikely.
Finally, Kai took a look at the papers folded inside.
—
Kaiser Frost
Date of birth: xx/xx/2031
Age: 14
—
That might seem strange to most people, but Kai didn't know his birthday. He knew generally what his age was, but no one knew his actual date of birth, well, no one living now. With most databases containing such information being destroyed or corrupted, he didn't have a good way to learn it. There was some more identifying information, but none of that mattered; what mattered was what came next.
—
Mana assessment: F-rank
Skills:
Active:
N/A
Passive:
[Aura control], [Clear mind], [Talent with polearms]
Unknown:
[Carry the fallen], [Forgetful genius]
—
'What? Wait, no, no, no, no.'
Kaiser looked further down the page, but there was only an explanation for some of his skills. Looking at the second page was more of the same. The only two left blank of [Carry the fallen], and [Forgetful genius], neither had an explanation, although the second had a note: 'Discovered and noted among a handful of Hunters, no documented data found.'
'F-rank' Kaiser was the lowest rank possible for any awakened. He was a weakling.
"What is it? Is everything okay?"
Noah seemingly had noticed Kai's distress and following distant gaze. However, instead of answering, Kai simply handed over the papers, his hands shaking a little as he did.
All three boys went quiet for a moment as they read through the information. While Noah and Liam's expressions were indecipherable, Luke's was not. Kai saw the moment the boy read his rank clearly, wincing as he did, and then he looked towards Kai with sympathy in his eyes. But when he spoke, sympathy was not what he gave Kai. There was a part of Kai that knew the three would distance themselves when they found out Kai was weak, but it still was going to hurt. Kai closed his eyes.
"Don't let it get you down, Mana's the easy part with those skills, you'll be fine."
'Huh?'
Before Kai could respond, Liam chimed in as well.
"A weapon talent is pretty rare, especially one as wide as polearms. That's an entire classification of weapons, I'm jealous."
Noah looked stunned, but managed to choke out a response. "Liam, you have talent with hammers. What are you talking about? I should be the jealous one. And Luke! May I remind you that you have the most mana in the academy? You can't say that to someone, you just can't."
The other two boys both snickered at that.
"Don't laugh, where was this sort of encouragement when I told you my skills? Luke, you said and I quote: Damn that sucks, man, skill issue."
That finally broke the tension, both of the brothers breaking out laughing at their friend's stunned reaction. Even Kai, who had been completely dejected just a moment before, couldn't help but laugh a little. Eventually, Noah smiled but did his best to hide it.
It still hurt, but Kai was in a slightly better mood after that, enough so that he was able to finish his food as the trio read through his skill descriptions. Well, he could listen to Luke's short summaries of their descriptions since the brother did not seem intent on actually reading them all aloud.
"Aura control la de da blah blah blah, basically: you can sense and control your mana, and you're able to convert it into physical strength."
"I've heard that's a pretty versatile skill; it is one of those skills that high-ranked Hunters acquire naturally, but it's not a bad start." As usual, Liam was more insightful, if not as vocal as his brother.
"Clear mind is like if combat focus were a skill, it doesn't seem that great."
Kai was mid-bite of food, so he couldn't ask what that meant, but thankfully Noah spoke up to explain.
"Combat focus is what people call the headspace you enter while you're in combat, where everything else slips away and you're able to keep your mind calm as you fight. It's another thing that you can acquire naturally, but it's still super useful. I'm surprised you've learned it already, it's not the kind of thing normal people have."
Kai nodded at that explanation. He hadn't realized that was a skill, but apparently, how clearly he was able to think during combat was unusual.
'I guess that's because of that skill, or maybe I've just always been like that, and it got translated into a skill?'
However, before he could ponder on the nature of skills and the causation or correlation of them, he was interrupted by Luke continuing his summarization of his skills.
"Talent with polearms is obvious, but basically you're much better with polearms than anything else."
"'Talent skills' have three levels: knack, talent, and genius. Of course, how good you actually are with them is determined by how much work you put in. Talent just means how fast you pick up concepts and how good your intuition is. For instance, I still get annihilated by Lieutenant Beckner when we spar despite having more talent with hammers than him."
For a moment, Liam's expression shifted, as if he was recalling a distant, unpleasant memory. Considering Kai's fights with Beckner, he could understand why that man was a monster.
"Speaking of which, how'd your exam with him go? You never told us about ouch– Oh, fine... I guess I should let him eat before making him think about that."
Liam had seemingly elbowed his older brother in the side to interrupt his question.
It seemed like at least three of the four boys had… 'sparred' with the Lieutenant, and they all seemed to have their scars from it. While he was still wolfing down the meal like he hadn't eaten in days, he swallowed his bite of food to ask a question he'd been thinking about for a while.
"Why is he allowed to fight trainees like that?"
Noah was the one who answered, which gave Kai the impression that he, too, had his own experience with the Lieutenant in question and simply didn't let it show in the same way the other two had.
"There are a few reasons, the first and most obvious is that he's royalty, well, not as much as Q is, but still, his family is pretty high in the military. The second is that they have a nurse on staff who can wipe memories, so if things get too bad, they can heal the cadet's mind and body. Well, I guess they don't need to heal their bodies when Lieutenant Beckner is involved. The last reason and the reason that he's even here in the first place is simply that he is responsible for making the best soldiers and Hunters in history."
"I've heard three out of the five gods were trained by him, along with Raina and Comet. Seems like every famous Hunter or hero trained under him at one point. Even if he did actually ruin students, that kind of success rate might be considered worth it."
Liam responded to his brother evenly, although the slight fear in his eyes remained.
"It can't be. I don't get why they brought him in for the exams. I could see them wanting him to train the upper program, but having him do the entrance exam seems weird."
At this point, Kai had finally finished his food and decided to rejoin the conversation.
"Wait, go back, aren't there only four gods?"
The gods were the term that people used to refer to the four S-rank hunters in the Western continent. To the point that the strongest A-rank hunters were often referred to as Demigods, of which there were nine, those being the individuals people thought most likely to become S-rank in the future.
There were four gods, each of which led their guild or organization, those guilds all being powerhouses in their field, nearly entirely on the backs of their leaders. The Mage god, who was the guildmaster for Sigil, the second strongest guild. The Hunter god was the leader and founder of the Bureau of Hunter Affairs. The Healing Goddess, who leads the Divine guild the strongest of the guilds. And the Defense god, who leads the lion guild, the third strongest guild.
'One, two, three, four… there's only four unless they're counting one of the demigods as a god. Some people consider Raina or Comet basically S-ranks, or maybe Spark?'
Raina and Spark were the powerhouses behind the Royal and Glory guilds, respectively.
"Oh yeah, I forgot most people don't count Angel as a god." Noah's words gave Kai pause.
Angel was not the title of an S-rank Hunter, well, at least not a living one. He was a hero, the hero, the First Hunter, and the man who fought during the fall of the Eastern territory settlement. The man Kai wanted to be like, and despised.
"Ah, I see."
Kai hadn't tried to make his statement sound indifferent, but the iciness in his voice seemed obvious now that he'd spoken. However, if any of the three boys had noticed, they didn't say anything. Instead, Noah circled back to Luke's question, now that Kai was finished with his food.
"What happened with your exam? I feel like it couldn't have been too bad considering how fast you woke up, but I'd be resistant to describing any interaction with Beckner as 'not too bad'. Which is saying something, cause out of us three, I probably am the least scared to fight him."
"I'm not scared to fight him, I simply don't want to since I'm a mage." Luke's interjection was not very convincing.
"It was a bit disturbing, but I feel like I learned a lot from it, too. Especially his fighting style, I feel like I learned a lot about hand-to-hand combat from him." As Kai spoke, the three boys' expressions became more and more concerned, but he continued. "I'm not sure how many rounds I lasted, but I do think he helped me get over my fear of death a little. Or at least lessen it."
A long silence followed his words. Eventually, it was Luke who broke it.
"What kinda monster?"
"Huh?"
"You're not sure how many rounds? As in, you lost count? Or forgot? Dude, I lasted three and then I passed out for a week."
"I lasted four, which I was ready to gloat about, but now I don't feel like I can."
"I lasted three too, but each of them was pretty long to be fair."
So Luke and Noah had lasted three, and Liam four? That didn't seem like a lot to Kai, but maybe he was wrong.
"Wait, what are you guys counting as a round? I was saying that each time he killed me was a round, and after about nine or so, I lost count, and then sometime after that I stopped learning, so he made us stop."
"He made you stop?!"
Luke was taken aback. He'd been tipping his chair back as they chatted, and at that moment, he fell over, which was only stopped by Liam grabbing the chair before he hit the ground.
"I see why you're with us then."
Noah's smile seemed much more genuine than it had been before. He usually smiled as he spoke, but that just seemed to be the kind of person he was. Now, his expression was different; he was still smiling, but now he had more than a hint of interest in his eyes.