Chapter 4 : Entrance exams (1)

The entrance exams were famous ordeal. Heroes and Raiders were no small deal. Everyone praises a savior and RUA being the best in India for training them would mean the best of India would be coming from the campus. During the first anomaly gate opening the previously medical campus of RUA was destroyed to its foundation killing majority of people there. It was then rebuilt from the massive donations from Joshi Trust Foundation to be the now RUA. It still stuck with its roots and medical College was still there but now it was more known for the Raiders it produced. Before RUA it was the biggest campus in Asia and now it has expanded even more, obviously maintaining the status of the biggest campus.

"So how is this test conducted?" asked Krishna

"Are you sure you work here? How can you not know about the exams? They are like a festival for the whole Ahmedabad." Said Ganesh looking suspiciously at Krishna.

"Well, till now I had no reason to know about these tests."

Ganesh shook his head and said, "before the entrance exams you are tested for your ranking. Those who qualify go through two steps. First is theoretically, which is fairly easy and then comes the most famous and awaited step the practical test. The second step also has multiple steps which keep on Changing every year and it is done in the stadium there." He pointed towards the big building in the middle of the whole campus. A place capable of holding 60,000 spectators. "That where the main event happens. So where are our tickets?"

Krishna was looking confused at the old man "which tickets? I wasn't even aware of its existence a couple of minutes ago, how will I have the tickets?"

Ganesh again shook his head and said "aren't you a faculty here? you must have gotten free tickets."

"Well, I wasn't exactly attending college so even if they did give them away I would not have them, nor would I have taken if I was there. This isn't my cup of tea" said Krishna shrugging with his arms open.

Ganesh then looked away dramatically, Krishna knew what kind of drama was coming and he wasn't taking it any more than he already had.

"Don't start now old man, I will see what I can do."

Saying that Krishna left.

Anika on the other hand was preparing for her theory test which she had done 5 times till now so it was going to be a walk in the park for her but still she decided to go through things again. She was holding her book close to her eyes as she had forgotten her reading glasses, A fairly hard bump on her shoulder made the book fall of from her hand

"Look out asshole."

Rishi Sharma looked back at this woman wearing a sweatshirt and had barely done hair. "I am not the one standing in the middle of the road" said rishi as he mumbled "freaking barbarians."

Anika could not make out the words but she knew when an insult was thrown at her, she was not the one to hesitate in defending herself against anything. "Stop whispering like a little girl and be a man."

Rishi turned again with clear anger and said, "Look you little shit, if your keep talking it will only end badly for you."

Anika was about to advance and Ganesh threw in his hands in her way "stop it Anika, save your energy for the competition."

"That is if she even qualifies." Said Rishi smirking.

That would have been enough of a trigger for Anika but then a large man came in between, he picked up the book, dusted it, apologised goddess Saraswati the goddess of knowledge for dropping a book and handed it over to the original owner of the book, Anika.

"That is no way of talking to a lady. Is that how you treat your mother?"

Rishi clenched his fists, the tension was obviously rising. Who was this man who came between a fight, it wasn't a normal thing for people to stand for someone else in this age.

Rusjeet singh who also saw this happening rushed towards the point. He took Rishi by force telling him it was not the way for him to behave in public. It seemed that the big man recognised Rusjeet as he bowed his head with palms put together in respect of the man and let the matter slide.

"I could have taken him on, Who are you anyway to stand for me?"

The man turned his large muscular frame back. Anyone could see his rock hard and at times disproportionately large muscles were not just for show.

"Where are my manners, allow me to introduce myself lady. I am Rajdeep Jadeja. I am sorry if my attempt hurt your self respect. I had no intention as such, I just cannot stand when someone is being disrespectful to a woman in my presence. You can say I somewhat did it for my pride too."

Ganesh chuckled and said "Anika, certainly doesn't act or look like a lady now, does she?" Anika got red with anger as she gave Ganesh a fiery look, which he understood was his que to stop.

"Anika, I see, meaning one of a kind, certainly a suitable name for a lady like you." Rajdeep looked at his watch and said "it's time I take leave, we will meet in the tests then."

Anika looked surprised and asked "how do you know I am going to take the test?"

"The book I gave you back is certainly for the test, that helped me guess you can say." Said Rajdeep as he left in a hurry.

______

Before step one came the qualifying rounds, here anyone with rank D or above could apply but step 2 was only for those with rank C or more. At this point high aura pool of the above ranks would certainly help but these candidates were not exactly well trained hence even a C rank could take down an A rank if he was good enough.

Qualifying round was done with a state of the art affinity measuring device till now due to her unstable aura Anika's rank would keep fluctuating between D and B. But according to Krishna it should now have been fixed on a rank though her aura was still not completely stable yet as she was still getting used to her new foundation.

In that one week she was given a new foundation as per what Krishna explained to her. But now she will start gaining back the full extent of her affinity every time she uses up some part of her aura and it regenerates. It's a slow process, like a bird gathering grass blade by blade and eventually building her nest. That still didn't mean she would not have any anxiety. After 5 years of failure it was inevitable to feel restless.

She spotted Rajdeep ahead in the line, it was his turn. When he came out, there was some murmur which she couldn't catch initially but then got to know it was his rank was A3. That rank wasn't too common nor was it ultra rare but it sure was a big enough deal.

D was too common among the applicants and it kept on going for a long time before it was finally Anika's turn. She went into the ranking room that was quite familiar to her. Nothing had changed significantly since her first trial.

The ranking machine was the same but still was a standard in the industry. The operators did change a couple of times but every other placement was practically the same. In the middle of the room was a black sphere that had multitudes of black wires coming out of it, to Anika it gave the vibes of being in a sci fi movie.

She stood at the platform and awaited for the operator to give a go. There was a round mouth in which she had to insert her hand. Though she had been acclimatized to this experience, it was still an anxiety driven thing to put you hand inside a dark cavity, like it might cut off the limb.

Operator gave the go and the hand was inside that dark cavity, many small crystal tips touched her hand inside, collecting data. There was a screen above which would give her the assigned rank. She could feel her heartbeat as she closed her eyes in anticipation of a good results, then came a ting which she had heard 5 times by now. As she looked up at the screen it she could see her rank, the operator said, "you passed, move on to the next area where the theories were to be held."

But Anika still stood there for a few seconds taking in the information, the screen showed in big bold and capital letters C2.

______

Theoretical exams were mcq based taken on a computer and would run for only an hour. Till then the stadium was getting filled with spectators. To them it was like watching the Olympics or any sport, there were even many that came from other states to watch this event unfold.

Ganesh stood outside the gates where Krishna had told him to wait. Krishna came from inside the stadium and said,

"let's go old man. They ran out of tickets but luckily I had a few connections, You owe me for this."

"You? And connections? Stop joking, who was the poor guy you bullied to take his tickets?"

Krishna started walking back to the stadium gate as he said, "suit yourself."

Ganesh followed him hastily knowing that he was not joking, but it still amused him as to what kind of connection does a loner like him would have.

At the gates they were given special entry from the big lines and would mostly take a path not taken by many, also having a sign over them saying vip entry.

"Have you got some babe with political connections or what?"

Krishna didn't feel like replying as they kept walking. Even among the vip lanes they kept walking into more and more exclusive lanes which worried Ganesh if they were not just walking in illegally. When they reached their big balcony booth that stood out like a pod in with transparent glass which extended to a majority of the floor giving a complete and clear view of the whole ground.

The people there were certainly powerhouses, politicians and millionaires who had donated considerable amounts to the university every year. Krishna went ahead and sat on a two seater sofa and Ganesh joined him, "who is this connection of yours?"

To which a voice from Krishna's right replied "that would be me good sir."

Ganesh leaned his head over the sofa to look at the man who replied and was left flabbergasted, it was none other than the Vice President of RUA, Ram Rathod. A man who had worked in RUA since the beginning and was said to be one of the core reasons for the status which RUA enjoyed.

Then another man leaned over from Ram's side and said looking at Krishna,

"so you must be the sun of Mr and Mrs Joshi. It's a pleasure to meet you, please don't refrain from asking anything in the future. We can never repay the debt of your parent's, not only did they give money to build this fine institution but even their core values have what made RUA what it is today."

Krishna looked at this old but muscular man who despite his age was someone that gave the impression of power, both as a confident authoritative person and as a warrior. "Don't mind me, when will the second step start?"

"A few minutes at best."

Ganesh failed to recognise due to lack of clear sight of that person but he thought there was something familiar about him so he asked Krishna, "who is that old man? And what is he talking about your parents?"

Krishna waved his hand and dismissed saying, "don't worry about that it's just the president of RUA being formal."

Ganesh's previous surprise which he thought could not be topped was broken to pieces, that president of a man, named Sardar patel, rightly keeping the integrity of his name as the man with iron will, was a big player renowned in the world.

He pretty much developed and put India in the eyes of the world as a country capable of holding itself against even many of the developed nations in terms of capacity to hold back the waves. He was even said to be among the top tier of heroes but due to his deteriorating health his fighting days had come to an end. Nonetheless it did not stop him from achieving feats any less than a top tier hero. They do say war is not just fought on the battlefield. It gave anxiety to Ganesh thinking what could be this man Krishna's status given that even the president was being formal with him, then he remembered all the things he had been saying to him and hoped it would not have bad repercussions for him in the future.

______

Anika had cleared the step 1 easily and now was in a big waiting area where everyone who passed was seated. This was a new experience to her altogether. Most of the applicants there were younger than her, many would reapply for the test but after 2 to 3 failed attempts they would give up.

She had no Idea how to act or talk with anyone so she sat at one of the benches thinking about step 2. The steps would sure be different most of the time but they were not that random. The main core or step 2 was to identify ability and potential. There would be 3 events each to test agility, strength and capabilities of an individual.

"What your rank?" Said boy standing next to her seat with a mild grin.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry, I am Ashish Sebastian." Said Ashish proudly "rank A"

"I am Anika, Rank C."

Ashish maintained his grin and said, "don't worry, If it comes to it I will try to go easy on you." As he walked away, he said in a low voice, "and here I thought I felt she would be better."

Anika clenched her fish in anger and then a girl came and sat beside her, "don't mind anyone here, your rank doesn't define you." This girl was wearing a Karate robe with black belt which was an obvious display of power Anika thought.

The girl extended her hand to shake and said, "I am Reema Ahuja, Rank B. It seems like your first time." Said Reema with a big smile on her face. Anika nodded in agreement they shook hands. Reema pulled back her fists as if pumping up and said "Don't worry I won't go easy on you." She then started rubbing her elbows as she had accidentally hit the metal seat and it sent a chilling pain down her bones. Anika thought she was a klutz but a good person and chuckled at the incident. Reema gave her a big smile again in return as they both sat there chatting, where Reema would mostly keep speaking and Anika would keep nodding and replying to the asked questions.