Zeka sat propped against the wall, his eyes half-closed, breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath. He tried to get up with both hands, but his body was too weak to even move a finger. Liora watched him struggling to move, wondering if it was really that hard or if he was overreacting.
Liora leaned down, lifting his arm around her neck so both could enter the room where the kids were. When the door opened, the kids were already waiting on the floor impatiently to test their new 'cool' powers, and the scientist was already there sitting on a chair waiting for the last two kids to enter. Weird how he reached the room before Zeka and Liora without even sensing him moving.
Liora sat on the floor with Zeka next to her as the scientist looked at them with coldness, and yet the smugness was there on his face.
"Each of you saw how your power activated. That's how you'll use your power for the rest of your life."
The scientist said as if he was talking about the weather, while Zeka's confusion doubled when he'd said that this is how they'll use their power forever. Am I going to suffer every time I use my power or what? Zeka guessed while his bones kept cracking every time he slightly moved. The rest of the group looked at the scientist, trying to understand exactly what he meant.
"Genseki."
The scientist commanded, and Genseki immediately stood up.
"Try imagining a rock coming out of your hand."
Genseki looked at him for a moment, wondering if the scientist really just asked him to do something impossible by just imagining it, but he closed his eyes anyway and started to imagine a rock on his hand.
And once Genseki opened his eyes, he found a small rock resting on his palm that came out of nowhere. Genseki tried to process the situation; was this some sort of prank? But he did feel something weird; he felt like he just created this rock out of thin air.
"That's how your power works; to be specific, that's how you use your power."
The scientist said as he took the rock from his hand and threw it at the wall, and it actually made contact; not an illusion, not something conjured from nothing — an actual stone.
"As you can see, Genseki's power is what is known as 'earth'."
The scientist added as he lowered his hand, giving him a signal to sit down again. While Zeka looked more confused and much more overwhelmed, as if the information was too much even though it was very simple. A sudden sharp pain came across all of his body, and Zeka reached his hand out, hugging his own body tightly, trying to make the pain go away for at least one more minute.
"Hayato."
The scientist called a new name this time, looking at one of the identical twins. And Hayato stood up, not immediately, but didn't take his time either.
"Point at this wooden board with your hands."
The scientist commanded, reached out and pulled a board from behind him, and Hayato was excited — Genseki had just made a rock appear out of thin air. What can I do? he wondered, raising his hand to point at the board.
And suddenly, a fully charged electrical wave current came out of his hand and hit the wooden board the scientist was holding.
"This is the hand tier: whatever gesture you do with your hand will make a move, even if you were just pointing at your friend."
The scientist warned, and Hayato didn't listen; he was amazed at how his hands just made an electric wave without any help from anything, just his hands.
"And of course, Akari. Try imagining a weapon that's made out of light."
The scientist looked at the girl, who looked different from the rest. Akari, a girl who looked like she wasn't from Japan — Russian, maybe, though Zeka couldn't be sure. And while Hayato was still standing there in front of the wooden board, Akari raised her hand in front of her chest without moving forward or standing up; she didn't bother to do it, she was just too lazy to get up. And Akari imagined an axe, glowing with yellowish light made whoever looked at her gets damaged in the eye.
Zeka raised his head to look at the light that came out of nowhere, just to feel a burning pain in his eyes; it would damage, but not that much; it would only blind whoever looked at this light, but Zeka felt a very burning feeling in his eyes for just a slight look.
The scientist didn't even bother to look at him while Liora was worried about him this time, still confused whether he was overreacting or if it was a real reaction, but she tried to comfort him with gentle taps on his chest, which did calm him for a moment.
"Hayaru."
The scientist called the other twin, who had glasses on.
"You don't need an explanation, do you? Your power works like how Akari and Genseki work. But yours is a bit different since you're using the power of wind. You would be the only one who can see your own creation, but your opponents won't; not even your friends would see it."
The scientist added, without forcing him to do anything; he didn't need to.
"And then we got the heart tier, the most complicated one, explaining it would break my brain apart, so I'd rather not. But the only thing I know about this rare tier is it's impossible to understand and hard to control and needs a lot of practice. And of course I won't waste my time teaching failures; you'll end up like your father anyway, 'Zeka'."
The scientist called Zeka, the name Liora gave this time just to remind him that the name doesn't matter even if he changed it.
"But what I do know is you have to survive the 'activation phase'. It's the only tier where you need to survive six days after activating it, and of course I doubt you would survive this long."
The scientist spoke even though he knew full well that Zeka would survive anyway; those one thousand and nine hits weren't for show; they were meant to test how mentally strong he was.
While Liora looked completely fine with the 'activation phase,' as if it was nothing.
Today is day one in the activation phase; five days to go, and one of the two might die.