Kenji stood panting, the adrenaline slowly receding, leaving a dull ache in his battered arm. The two students from Golden Gate Academy were slowly picking themselves up, their eyes still wide with a mixture of shock and awe.
"Are you... are you okay?" Kenji managed, his voice still a little hoarse, but no longer the timid squeak of before.
The red-haired girl pushed herself fully upright, wincing as she put weight on her injured side. "We'll live, thanks to you. That thing almost had us. We lost two others in our team." A shadow passed over her face, a grim reminder of the brutal reality of their world. "My name's Akari Sato. And this is Renji Tanaka," she nodded towards the burly boy with the broken arm, who offered a weak but grateful smile. "We're both C-rank."
Kenji blinked. Renji Tanaka? The same last name. What a coincidence. "I'm Kenji Tanaka," he replied, feeling a strange camaraderie with these two, despite their earlier near-demise.
"Kenji," Akari repeated, testing the name. "Seriously, your power is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. You don't have an ID badge, which means you're not formally registered. How is that possible?" Her brow furrowed, a mix of concern and intense curiosity. "Look, my number is 090-XXX-XXXX. Renji's is 090-XXX-XXXX. You have to try out for the Academy. With power like yours, you could change everything. Text us when you're ready, okay?" She scribbled their numbers on a crumpled piece of paper she pulled from a tattered pouch, handing it to him with a look that dared him to refuse.
Before Kenji could fully process her words, a piercing siren wailed in the distance. "Academy backup," Renji grunted. "We need to get out of here before they start asking too many questions."
Akari nodded, a flicker of something guarded in her eyes. "This is our secret, Kenji. Don't tell them you were here, or what you did. We'll make up a story about barely escaping. Your reveal needs to be on your terms." With a final, meaningful look, they limped away, melting into the shadows just as the first searchlights from an approaching helicopter swept over the abandoned lot.
Kenji, clutching the paper with their numbers, slipped away in the opposite direction, the lingering scent of ozone and the phantom weight of the demon's demise still clinging to him. He was no longer just the bullied kid. He was something else entirely.
A Call and a Mysterious Facility
The next morning, the lingering pain from his arm was a stark reminder that the previous night hadn't been a dream. He bandaged it himself, wincing as he moved. His adoptive family, thankfully, was too wrapped up in their own lives to notice his injuries or his strange, newfound quiet confidence.
His phone buzzed. It was an unknown number. He hesitantly answered.
"Kenji? It's Akari," her voice was hushed, urgent. "Are you free today? I know it's sudden, but we need to do that scan. Renji and I told the Academy we encountered a particularly strong demon that nearly wiped out our team, and we just barely escaped with a few others. We omitted your part, just like we said. But the higher-ups are still shaken, and they want to put more Awakened through the scanner."
Kenji's stomach twisted. "A scan? What kind of scan?"
"It's how the Academy verifies a fighter's spiritual rank and potential," Akari explained, her voice gaining a professional edge. "It's normally done during tryouts, but they're pushing everyone through given the current chaos. It's safe, I promise. It just measures your spiritual signature. Meet me at the old abandoned subway station entrance near the downtown district. You know the one."
He knew it. A crumbling, graffiti-covered entrance that led to forgotten tunnels. Kenji's curiosity, now fueled by his awakening, outweighed his usual timidity. "Okay. I'll be there."
He arrived to find Akari and Renji, looking much better though still bandaged, waiting by the rusting grate. Akari led him down a grimy staircase into the darkness, revealing a surprisingly clean and well-lit corridor beyond a reinforced steel door.
"Welcome to the Academy's unofficial intake facility," Akari whispered as they walked. "It's underground, disguised, for security. Lots of unranked fighters come here, hoping to get scouted. Some people wait years just for a chance."
The facility was bustling. Young men and women, ranging from scrawny teenagers to grizzled veterans, sat in waiting areas, some nervously pacing, others practicing what looked like rudimentary spiritual exercises. Monitors dotted the walls, displaying various stats and rankings.
"See those?" Renji pointed to a large screen detailing mission payouts. "Rewards, money, gear – it all varies through ranks and missions. A C-rank mission might net you a few thousand yen and some low-grade spiritual reagents. An A-rank could be millions, rare artifacts, and even a direct audience with the High Council. S-ranks? They practically write their own tickets." He looked at Kenji with a knowing grin. "If you make it in, that is."
Akari led Kenji to a sterile room where a large, cylindrical device stood in the center. A stoic-looking doctor with a medical mask gestured them inside. "Alright, just step into the scanner, kid. Should only take a few minutes."
Kenji swallowed, stepping into the cylinder. He felt a faint hum as lights flickered around him.
The Scan That Shook the Academy
Minutes stretched into ten, then twenty. The doctor, initially nonchalant, began to frown. "That's… unusual. His spiritual signature is fluctuating wildly."
An hour passed. Two hours. Other unranked fighters came and went, their scans completing in mere moments. Kenji remained in the cylinder, the humming intensifying, the lights glowing brighter and brighter.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Akari asked, her voice laced with growing unease. "Is he okay?"
"I… I don't know. The readings are off the charts. It's like the system can't comprehend his spiritual density." The doctor's voice had lost its professional calm, replaced by a nervous tremor.
The commotion eventually reached the ears of Headmaster Hiroshi Sato, a formidable man with a stern face and eyes that held the wisdom of decades of spiritual warfare. He arrived, flanked by two armed guards, his presence immediately silencing the bustling facility.
"What is the meaning of this delay, Doctor?" he boomed, his gaze falling upon Kenji in the scanner.
"Headmaster!" The doctor saluted. "We… we're performing a rank scan on this young man. His spiritual signature is unprecedented. The system is taking an exceptionally long time to process it. It's been nearly three hours."
Headmaster Sato walked closer, his eyes narrowing as he observed the scanner's frantic readings. He then turned to Akari. "You brought him here, girl. What do you know about him?"
Akari hesitated, then took a deep breath. "Headmaster, this is Kenji Tanaka. Last night, Renji and I encountered a B-rank demon… the one that wiped out our reconnaissance team. We were about to be finished when Kenji… he arrived. He… he toyed with it, Headmaster. A B-rank demon. He utterly obliterated it, solo. With power I've never seen before."
Headmaster Sato's stern expression morphed into one of utter disbelief. "Toyed with a B-rank? A B-rank demon almost wiped out one of our C-rank teams! That's preposterous! There are only twelve known S-rank Spiritual Fighters in the entire world, and rumors of an Ultra SS-rank close to breakthrough are nothing but speculation. This boy is clearly an unranked civilian. He has no formal training. How could he possibly–"
As the Headmaster's voice rose in disbelief, a series of frantic beeps erupted from the scanner. The lights inside the cylinder flared one last time, reaching an almost unbearable intensity. Just as Headmaster Sato was about to order the scan to be aborted, fearing a system overload, a deafening BEEP echoed through the facility.
The scanner went dark. Then, the large monitor above it flickered to life. All chatter ceased. Every eye in the facility, including the Headmaster's, was fixated on the screen.
In massive, bold, luminous letters, filling the entire monitor, a single message blazed forth:
CONGRATULATIONS, KENJI TANAKA.
THE 13TH S-RANK THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.
A collective gasp swept through the facility. The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the Headmaster's stunned, whispered, "Impossible…"
Kenji, stepping out of the scanner, felt a lightness he'd never known. The ache in his arm was gone. The weight of being nothing had finally, irrevocably, lifted.