I slept in the closet for a short amount of time. A loud knock suddenly bangs on the closet door. "Half-asleep, hair a mess, I jolted awake to the banging. My heart thumped nervously. I winced at the banging noise. It seemed to have 3 bangs until it stopped and a silent man's voice said, "We know an unidentified person is in there," Three more knocks banged again. I let it go and quickly opened the door to a chubby middle-aged man seeming to have a uniform of the academy's.
He saw me as a light blue-haired 4-year-old girl with pajamas and normal hazel eyes. He grabbed me and walked somewhere. My eyes were half open. Confused about what's going on right now and contemplating if I'm in real danger. Panic clawed at me. Opening the door felt like a mistake I might regret. I finally reached a room with a table and a young man with an odd cape sitting on his chair with a table in front of him and he also had very weird shades.
The man put me down and told me to sit down in the chair with the young man.
He abruptly asked me short-term questions on my life and my experiences and mainly how I got here. I could even make a statement of my own when he was asking it.
He kept on going even when I didn't answer. I was so confused about what was happening so I reluctantly asked him "I... I don't understand. Can you explain what's going on?" He took a moment while looking at his papers and then slowly nodded his head up and down. He didn't even say anything.
The man was very odd and wasn't answering my questions. He then handed me a paper and now finally I was somewhat conscious. I grabbed it and he told me to answer the following questions as a ringing noise of his phone and he answered and he just talked to the person on the other side with a silent voice so I couldn't hear any of it, which was uhm... mean.
I was still confused onto what was happening but I couldn't deny that I was in a rammed conversation. I skimmed the questions and I took the pencil and the first question was "What is your name?" Straightforward and deliberate. I wrote down my name as "Yuno Hikari"
The second question was asked "Do you have any parental guidance?" I read that question, which confused me about what "Guidance" meant. I think the odd man meant "Do you have any parental protection?" I didn't even have a single memory of my parents yet. I wrote "No" on the question.
There were a solid 4 questions written for me to answer. The survey I was taking was quite a huge one. I wonder if I'll live here. I looked at the third question and it asked if I wanted to live life here for free. Yeah, from that question, I was fully awake. I glared at the question knowing some hope would occur. I quickly, without any hesitation, wrote down "Yes" with an extra please. Maybe I can live off this. I thought that my life wasn't so despondent after all.
I looked at the 4th and final question and it said "Do you think I'm a weirdo?" These types of questions are the ones that make me more anxious about this whole, kind of survey thingy. I just wrote "Yes" I would have written no, but he was so weird that I couldn't resist. I hope he sees that I expressed my feelings in this paper and not just the questions.
I gave the man back his papers and then the same man who brought me in here, came back and took me out to a field right behind the building. There was a fit-looking teacher with a ball in his hands. The sun was glaring in my face making me not be able to see. I changed my position and the coach told me to show him my Spec.
I felt like this was just a scam, no way also this creep wants to see my Spec. I just did it anyway, fearing I would get detention or something. I lifted my hands and turned them to my face and I slowly concentrated and slowly, shards of ice were coming out of my hands. It wasn't strong at all. What was even happening?
I wonder how you would even improve this. After these days had passed. I had acquired a small dorm on the second floor. I had a sweet cozy bed with a small table for I guess homework. I also had a food guy come to my room whenever I asked to. I also had a window showing me the attractive cyberpunk city. It was early evening and the sun was about to set.
I saw kids playing at the ground and old middle-aged men going to work. I saw trains sifting and swerving. I saw many things in that moment.
Soon I had to go to sleep, but I think I have learned the basics of my Spec. I have learned to control it and have learned to grow the size by a small amount. As days passed on, I practiced with that same coach every day and practiced my Spec every day as well.
I was so grateful for having a much better life. Who knew that after even just a few weeks a person's life could turn the WHOLE OPPOSITE. I'm curious about Yumi and what she is probably doing right now.
I left that thought and instead thought of my Spec. I guess I loved eating ice cubes. It tasted luscious even though it was just water. I thought my spec was quite boring though. My luck was pretty bad I guess. But at least it isn't too bad.
I had Shinjo as well but I didn't focus on it yet since my coach didn't want me to at this moment.
I opened my window and felt the cold sunny breeze of air flow right to my face. It felt awesome. But that wasn't the point. I lifted my hand and raised it out of the window and raised it at the horizon. I was going to see how much my Spec is worth now.
The way a Spec works is if you push out shinjo and convert it with your blood. Uh, it may sound confusing but in this world, it's totally normal. Any blood type works with it. I pushed shinjo and combined it with my blood and it was about to push out my hand. My face felt like I had just lost a sincere battle. Thin shards of ice erupted from my palm, sharp as frozen needles, stabbing the air. Drops of water fell as the ice was melting. It grew straighter but didn't grow in size. My hand was hurting and it felt spiky. How would I even be able to get used to this?
I kept letting it out and the pressure I felt in my right hand was unbearable. It squeezed and squeezed until my hand was starting to get pale. I let go and stopped and it spiked back. It hurt a lot but it was worth it. It went further than I usually expected it to do. It went about as long as a king-sized bed in size.
My legs were shaking a bit and I fell back to my bed in a weird position I couldn't describe, my right leg was off the bed, hanging. My right arm was on my chest. My left arm was hanging down as well, and my body was slumped down as I started losing consciousness slowly and slowly. It was almost everything and I had already slept.
I'm wondering if this would ruin my routine. My basic routine was to wake up every day at 8:00 AM, then go brush my teeth right after. Eat 2 slices of bread and by that time it had turned about 8:30.
Then I took a 15-minute shower and got ready for training with my coach. Not just my Spec but basic exercising as well.
At 2 PM I finished exercising and went for lunch. Commonly for lunch I had a bowl of white rice with a side of grilled chicken. After 1 hour I got back to exercising. I did the same practices and I've seen other kids do the same with me.
At 5 I had stopped training for the day. I studied personal business with myself and my notes are filled with ideas I could do growing up or maybe resolutions I could do at the beginning of every year.
Then at 7 I ate a snack called "Shogummies" which was my favorite. Basically gluten with shinjo-shaped gummies. Shinjo was a form of energy so I didn't know why it was even shinjo-shaped when it just looked like crushed-up clay.
Then it was 9 PM and for dinner I had a normal white rice as usual and a steak with a side of creamy mashed potatoes and a juice box. Trust me, it tastes good.
I also had a phone so I could get occupied but it only had a 2-hour limit. At this time it had become 10 PM.
I just went to sleep at 10:30 PM. That was my whole day in a fixed life.
It's exhausting but at least it wasn't survival at a point.