Present Day
"Do you remember when we first met? Carl?" Jon suddenly asked.
"What about it?" Carl asked in reply, surprised with the question.
Carl remembered what Jon was talking about. He recalls the first time he met Jon at Nexlark Regional Academy. Feeling a little bit guilty as he remembers, Jon noticed Carl with heavy eyes.
Jon smiled at him and said, "What was done in the past is done, Carl. The only important thing is we move forward."
"Y-yeah…!" Carl replied, with his expression lightened.
8 months ago
The next day, Jon was scheduled to meet the panel for deliberation. It was the first step in the admission to Nexlark Regional Academy. He was excited and hoped he could pass it. Grades or scores didn't matter to him. What mattered was to become a bona fide student in the academy.
Jon prepared himself for the day. The hassle of fulfilling the paperworks made his head dizzy the other day. Dealing with paperworks was not his strong point. Being able to finish it in a day surprised himself.
While waiting for his turn for the deliberation, Jon sat on the bench with his arms crossed deep in thought. It was warm and humid, and Jon started to sweat. Suddenly, he felt his body hair raise. He suddenly felt goosebumps. A gray haired person rushed before the door of the deliberation room and he looked familiar.
Jon looked at the person who smiled at him in return. He felt uneasy and wanted to leave. As Jon stood up, the door to the deliberation room opened and allowed the person in. "I'm sorry, I'm late!" The gray haired man excused himself.
"That's unbecoming of someone like you. Come in, the candidates are waiting!" The person from inside the deliberation room said.
As the gray haired man entered and the door closed Jon felt relief. There was something about the person that made him strange. Jon returned to his seat. He was thinking of what the examination would be and how he would pass it. Since the gray haired man was one of the panel, he must be one of the people who would deliberate his performance.
After waiting for thirty minutes, candidates exited the door where Jon was waiting. Some looked happy being able to pass the deliberation while most looked sad, probably failed. Jon hearing the conversations of the failed candidates, most were failed by the gray haired person who was strict. A representative suddenly opened the door after the other candidates exited and called the names of the next to be deliberated.
"Galvin Meyer…" The calling of names continued until Jon's name was mentioned. "Jon Mercer!" You may now come in.
Galvin, a tall skinny looking man stood up before the door. Between him and Jon were five other candidates. The candidates then entered one by one. Jon entered last and saw the panelist in front of him. There were five, two women and three men. They all looked serious. Most of them looked to be in their late thirties or early forties. One of them however, looked young, a lady panelist in the last seat on the left before the table.
The gray haired man sat on the farthest right in the seat. He was staring at Jon who felt the uneasy presence. After looking at Jon, he scanned before the other six candidates. He was disappointed with most of them by their appearance alone.
After moments of silence, the representative spoke. "Good day candidates, I would like you to show us your identification cards by raising it with your right hand." Immediately, everyone took their identification cards and raised it with their right hand. The panelists were impressed but were surprised to see one candidate who did not follow their instruction.
The gray haired man cleared his throat and glared at Galvin. "Is the instruction unclear, young man?"
Galvin, calmly said and replied, "I am left handed, sir."
"That's none of our concern." The gray haired man said.
"Your fate will be decided by the performance of a certain candidate's performance. Should he pass, you will pass too." The youngest panelist added.
The gray haired man pointed his finger to Jon who was surprised. The other candidates looked the other way while the others were chuckling. They thought that Jon was too unimpressive and weak to pass the deliberation. Hearing the other candidate's reaction, Jon did not let it bother him.
"My fate is sealed…" Galvin thought when seeing Jon.
The strictest looking female panelist raised her eyebrow displaying that she was displeased by their reaction to the gray man's announcement called two candidates. "Both of you get out of here!" She referred to the girl who had pink hair and a guy with a white streak on his hair.
Surprised, the two unanimously objected and asked, "What did we do?"
"By now you should know the answers by yourselves!" The youngest panelist said and pointed at the candidate with streaks in his hair. "Young man, you don't deserve to be here. From the moment you entered, I had my eyes on you."
"If you say so, then I believe I deserve not to be eliminated! I worked hard to be admitted here, to enroll in this Academy!" The candidate with white streaks on his hair stubbornly replied.
"A panelist's words are absolute in the four walls of this room. I suggest you drag yourself out of this room young man or we won't be able to save whatever is left of you." The oldest panelist warned.
"Make us!" The pink haired candidate defiantly said.
"This is interesting!" The youngest panelist said and stood up. "Breathe while you can or stay awake. We would reconsider our decision we made earlier if you prove yourself strong like your defiance to our judgement!"
The room suddenly became humid. Jon felt uneasy and the air was difficult to breathe. It seemed like the two candidates had infuriated the panelists. Jon used his wind element ability to be able to breathe. Galvin held his breath, hoping he would last as long as he could. The other three became dizzy. The two candidates who were about to be removed tried to fight their way. However, they pink haired candidate lasted for only two minutes while the candidate with the streak on his hair tried to hold his breath.
"It's no use!" The gray haired man groaned.
"The sin of one is the sin of all! Every one of you should suffer as a consequence of the wrongs of the two others. Consider yourself lucky to make it out of here alive."
In the fourth minute, the candidate with streaks on his hair was out of breath and collapsed to the floor. The youngest panelist returned to her seat afterwards. The panelists were surprised to see both Jon and Galvin still on their seats. The gray haired man, seeing Jon able to resist the suffocation technique by the lady panelist, was impressed.
"You passed, both of you!" The oldest panelist announced.
Hearing this, Galvin caught his breath and cheered. Meanwhile, Jon felt relieved in his seat and couldn't believe he had passed. The panelists called representatives to help the collapsed candidates who failed the first part of the admission.
"Congratulations you two, for passing the first part of the admission. We look forward in meeting you in the future!"
After that, Jon and Galvin stood up. Galvin went first outside while Jon followed. Jon noticed that the Galvin person was not ordinary as well. He did not notice him use an ability and thought he may have held his breath the entire time. Outside, Galvin was waiting for Jon and said.
"Clever to use an ability. I don't know how you did it but that suffocation ability was a high tier. To be able to pull that off was not an easy feat!"
After Galvin talked, Carl suddenly appeared with the bullies behind him. Carl looked troubled while a slim student with violet dyed hair stepped forward. "Congratulations for passing the first part of the admission, both of you!"
Carl was without his glasses and his hair in mess.Jon thought he was being roughed up again by the bullies again. Seeing Carl this way, Jon asked the violet haired student, "What did you do to him?"
"Oh, my little lackey here? He's a good practice mate and a punching bag. That's his fault for being weak. I hope you two will not share the same fate as him." The woman replied to Jon and Galvin.
Galvin looked at them with disgust while Jon angrily said, "That guy is a human being, he doesn't deserve to be treated that way!"
"Jon! That's enough, you are making things complicated…!" Carl said but Jon did not let him finish.
"Stand up for yourself Carl!" Jon looked at the violet haired student, "You must be Gina Winston. Carl told me about you. I swear, while I am here, you won't be able to do as you please!"