Meeting the Class

Yule and Sanna crossed two streets already, while Sanna remained walking in such a hurry that Yule had to play catch up with her. He asked her where they will meet Professor Fields which she simply replied that the professor was in the academy. But they need to ride a train before they can go there.

Sanna also explained that the reason she was in a hurry as the train only runs until 10 'o clock in the evening. When they passed a commercial building displaying a holographic analog clock, the hands were already pointed to 9:30.

They turned to an alley which was dumped various trash bins and stinking with rotting smells. After exiting it, they entered another colorful street where some stores had LED walls streaming concerts, actual forest scenes, the ocean, and some CGI video game footage. There were also floating hologram screens floating in the air where news was being broadcasted live. Above it, more flying vehicles zooming above ground.

Yule noticed that this street was busier compared to the other streets they passed. There were also a lot of people walking on the street. People were also having dinner along street cafes.

"Welcome to Section 2B - Entertainment District Annex," Sanna explained. "This dome has two entertainment districts. This one is the Annex where gaming and fancy restaurants reside here. The other one is Section 2A - Main Entertainment District where you can find casinos and media networks establishments. We're near now to the train station, so we better hurry."

Yule nodded at her, still roaming his eyes around.

This is the kind of futuristic city from the sci-fi novels he read before, Yule thought.

When they passed a certain gaming center, Yule and Sanna noticed there was a crowd gathering around it. Sanna walked straight and about to ignore the crowd when she heard a commotion inside the gaming center.

Both stopped on their tracks and tried to peek from the heads of the crowd on what was the commotion about. They could see a brown-haired boy wearing a white coat with black pants running around inside. Yule noticed that the white coat that the guy wearing had the same pattern as Sanna's.

The brown-haired boy was dodging some people and chairs as he tried to escape a young adult man wearing eyeglasses who chase after him.

"Ranger! Stop running around!" The young man with eyeglasses shouted while still chasing the brown-haired boy.

Sanna gasped at Yule's side, covering her mouth with her hand. "God kill me now. I know these people," she pleaded. Sanna marched inside the gaming center and shoved some people on her way. Yule followed her and apologized to the people on his way.

When they were inside the gaming center, Sanna and Yule stayed on the side and watched at the two people running around.

"I like to introduce to you my classmate, Ranger Yellowlake," she pointed at the brown-haired guy who was wearing the same design of white coat as Sanna. "And the one we are looking for, Professor Matteo Fields. He's our class advisor."

When Professor Fields looked at their direction, his eyes got bigger and halted his run.

"Sanna!"

Ranger heard his professor shouted someone's name and looked at Professor Fields.

Professor Fields approached Yule and Sanna and tried to scratch his face, looking embarrassed.

"Oh Sanna, why are you still in Upper Dome?"

"I could ask the same for you, professor," she replied and Professor Fields winced at her reply.

When Yule observed Professor Fields, he thought he was too young to be a class advisor for high school students. He looked like a college student wearing a long white laboratory coat. He also had disheveled black hair and behind the eyeglasses were gentle brown eyes, looking at them. Yule also noticed that Professor Fields was tall a person, standing at about 180 centimeters.

"Y-You see, I tasked Ranger for some paperwork earlier, but when I checked his room, it was empty."

"And we both know where he would go," Sanna finished.

Ranger laughed behind the back of Professor Fields and slapped his back. The brown-haired boy approached them and waved at Sanna. With his height, towering Professor Fields, Yule, and Sanna, Ranger looked like someone who came from a high fashion magazine. He was smiling at them, and Yule could see a hint of mischief on his blue-colored eyes.

The crowd started to disperse as they observed that the commotion was already over.

After observing that the crowd was almost gone, Professor Fields looked at Yule, examining him with his brown eyes.

"Are you by any chance, Sanna's boyfriend?" He inquired.

Ranger whistled, entertained at the new development. Yule surprised at his question which made him stepped back. Unknown to them, Sanna was clenching her fist, tilting her head down.

"What made you think that he's my boyfriend?!" Sanna exploded at Professor Fields.

Professor Fields was taken aback when Sanna exploded. Ranger quickly jumped to Yule and grabbed his shoulder. "So when you and Sanna started dating? Does she wear different kind of persona when she's with you? Do you know that she's too stiff in the academy?" Yule didn't know how to answer the barrage of questions from Ranger.

Sanna quickly grabbed Ranger and launched her right leg, attempting to kick him on his stomach but with surprising speed, Ranger avoided the kick, leaping on top of a nearby table. He bowed mockingly at Sanna which made her more angrier. She was about to attack Ranger, this time with her fist, but Professor Fields clapped once his hands loudly. This made Sanna stopped.

"I think we made enough commotion in this establishment," Professor Fields said and looked at the cowering staff of the gaming center behind the cashier area. "Wait for me outside, I'll just talk to the staff."

The three of them nodded at the professor and orderly exited the gaming center. While waiting for the professor outside, Sanna was still fuming from what happened earlier while Ranger laughed at the hologram screen, streaming a comedy show.

When the professor exited the gaming center, he wore a very tired face. The trio looked at him expectantly.

"Everything is settled. But I promised them that we will help them this weekend where we will do a full-time job, assisting the staff to compensate for the commotions we've done."

Sanna and Ranger launched with various reasons that they have a pending task waiting this weekend.

Yule coughed loudly and Professor Fields, Sanna, and Ranger looked at him. "Do I have to work too?"

Professor Fields looked at Sanna, then sighed at no one. She moved to Yule and faced Professor Fields and Ranger.

"This is Yule Azul. First, he's not my boyfriend. Second, he claimed that he came from another world."

Professor Fields and Ranger looked incredulously at her.

"It's a long story. I'll just tell the whole story once we're on the train." Sanna said to them.

*****

The party arrived at a large white building with glass walls constructed around it. They entered the premises and took the escalator going down to the platform. The platform was filled with a crowd of people again waiting for the train to arrive. Yule spotted a few Engkanto at the platform. Some were glamouring their eyes, while some wore proudly their emerald stone eyes. Those Engkanto had brightly colored hairs from red, red-orange, yellow, sky blue, pale pink, and a few silver hairs. There were also some Engkanto wearing the same white military-like uniforms from the pair he had seen earlier. While there were selected Engkanto wore a long white lab coat, same with Professor Fields. The remaining were just wearing ordinary clothes.

The group settled to wait for the train near a large pillar. When Yule observed the platform, he could see holographic screens floating in the air, displaying the train's schedules and other reminders for passengers. Yule observed also that there were no visible rail tracks, but the train's path was enclosed by a glass-made tube. He was reminded of the tube elevator when they entered the city.

Then the PA system broadcasted the arrival of the train. The incoming train rapidly arrived at the station, and it was floating above the ground!

Rectangular doors started appearing on the glass-made tube. When the train fully stopped, it opened its doors and people started flowing out. The group waited, and when it was their turn, they hurriedly looked for a place to sit. They found an empty area and settled.

Yule was in between the window and Sanna. While Professor Fields and Ranger sat in front of them.

The moment that the train started moving and flew inside the tube, Sanna launched to her story. She recounted how she met Yule for the first time and told them that Yule came from another Earth. A peaceful Earth. She also them that they met and fought a Level 3 Aswang which made Professor Fields frowned, but he never made a comment and let Sanna continue her story. Sanna also recounted that Yule was a shard bearer and can summon a Weaponize form, but never had the chance to get the name or what creature he made a contract with. Yule supplied that it was a girl in a violet dress. Ranger almost fell from his seat when he heard a humanoid mythical being contracted, someone. She ended when they meet Manu at which made Sanna's eyes rolled in disgust.

Professor Fields was holding his chin and absorbing all the facts from Sanna, then he looked at Yule.

"This is fascinating, Yule. It's a lot to take in," Profesor Fields faced Ranger which he nodded. "But we need to examine your body first. We need to take a closer look at your shard. It might hold some answers we are looking for."

"But to whom? People will just look differently at us. To be honest, if you approach me with this kind of story, I will just flip you and get away ASAP." Ranger said which made Sanna nodded.

"Don't worry. I have the right person in mind we can discuss this. In the meantime, the three of you should keep this to yourself while we're waiting for answers. We're all gonna pretend that Yule is my nephew from Verde, and he will enter the Neo Archipelago Slaying Academy as a student."

The trio almost dropped their jaws upon hearing the statement from Professor Fields. Ranger and Sanna were about to launch with their concerns when Professor Fields raised his palm to them.

"I'm going to make this work. I'll pull some strings from higher-ups. In addition, we need another hand in slaying the monsters below. You all know that the Slayers population is getting reduce every year. Slayers die every day during duty. We can't take away the fact also that every year fewer people are getting compatible with the shards."

Ranger and Sanna looked down at their feet, reflecting on the current issues of the slayers.

"By the way," Professor interjected brightly. "We haven't introduced each other properly. I'm Professor Matteo Fields which already knew from Sanna. But I'm Ranger and Sanna's class advisor. Both of them are in sophomore year. They are still far from being the best slayers they could be."

Yule nodded at him. "I'm Yule Azul. You know my story. I'm a stranger in this world, and I don't know anyone aside from you, guys. But please take care of me."

This made Professor Fields, Ranger, Sanna smiled.

*****

The train flew inside the enclosed tube passing woodlands and mountains. Ranger started snoring on his seat, while Professor Fields picked a rectangular glass where various images and texts started appearing on the surface of the glass. Yule thought it was a mobile device.

He looked through the window and noticed the four large domes around the floating city. All are brightly glittering within due to the lights emitting from the buildings and establishments inside. Yule saw some flying vehicles outside the domes, flying through the night sky.

"We're still far away from the Academy Dome." Sanna interrupted. "We just came from the Upper Dome. The train needs to pass through two more Domes before we arrived at our destinations."

Yule nodded at her and looked back at the domes he could peek from his window. "What is the last stop?"

"It's the Capital Dome. The governments and slayers' higher-ups stayed there."

After seating for almost an hour and passed through two domes, the PA system announced that they arrived at the Academy Dome. Yule noticed that the people left were mostly high school students, and started exiting out.

They walked towards a crowded escalator. Yule observed that they are all wearing different kinds of uniforms. He found some students wearing the same uniforms as Sanna and Ranger.

Upon arriving upstairs, he was greeted by more people. Yule was surprised that there were still students at this hour. They were inside a glass building where Yule could peek the stars above.

Professor Fields guided them out of the building, and Yule was thrown into another city-like landscape just like with Upper Dome.

There were many buildings but compared to the Upper Dome, the Academy Dome was a bit more conservative. There were stores that already closed. Students started fading to various streets and alleys.

Professor Fields noticed that Yule was looking around with his eyes. "This dome is mostly comprised of different schools from elementary to high schools, universities, and colleges. Some of the buildings here are dormitories and apartments for students and teachers."

Yule observed also that there were fewer flying vehicles above in this dome.

They walked two more blocks and arrived at a large overlapping arch which served as the entrance. It was surrounded by different kinds of trees. Yule could see some buildings inside.

"I formally welcome you to Neo Archipelago Slaying Academy." Professor Fields said to Yule.