Chapter 07: An Interesting Turn of Events.

*Living life as a Sirius isn't all that comfortable, and everyone including the higher-ups will admit that without any questions. You're constantly in need of money, and if you're from a poor family, it's harder to even barely meet the daily living expenses. But that doesn't mean the pay is bad as a Sirius. Quite the opposite, actually. You can make a lot of money, no doubt about it, but those commissions are way too hard to pull off even for some lower rank pro Sirius. I'm not blaming, though,*- Yami stopped walking and looked around, it seems he's in a ruin of some sort, seemingly alone right now-*it makes perfect sense. You're not supposed to get paid for doing nothing. If you get bigger kill, it means you're working hard. If you're working hard-* He sensed dense fog like mana slowly surrounding him, blurring his vision. Something is moving inhumanly fast behind the thick fog *-you deserve to get better benefits than the rest. But that's the problem here. So are the weak not meant to be Sirius? They say- is that a spider? Hmm description matches the thing. Class 1 emories are a pain to hunt down- that every single Sirius is an asset, that they need all the manpower they can get.* The spider like emory looks disgusting and erie. It's huge, and covered in slime like poison. Yami kept noticing it's movement, seemingly kinda bored and annoyed at the same time. * To me, some of it sounds fake. They're lying. The whole system is being unfair and dishonest if I'm being real.* The spider finally made it's move. It must've noticed that Yami let his guard down for a split second. It's sharp spear like legs pierced through Yami's body....or so it seemed for a moment. The second they touched his body, Yami simply vanished from the spot. *What a damn pain. I can't touch this thing can I?* Yami looked at the spiders body. *It's practically dripping with poison. Well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.* By the time the spider realized it, Yami was already behind the thing. He took out a dagger and gently pushed it in the spiders back. There was no sound, no resistance, nothing. The class 1 emory simply fell down without fighting back. Yami took out the dagger from the dead body, and put his hand inside the wound ignoring the deadly poison. *There it is.* He pulled a small blue ball shaped piece of stone out of the torso after searching for awhile. *Damn luck. I was hoping to get a shard. Well, I guess an orb would do for now.* He looked at the dead body which was slowly turning into ashes. *This haul is by no means a class 1 grade. Such unpleasant experience. Huh.*

*It's a chilly night alright. Should I grab something to eat on the way? Sub sounds good. But err...* Yami looked at his clothes. It's not completely covered in emory body fluids, but there are noticeable stains of blood and poison on it. Specially his left arm, which he put in the spider corpse to pull the orb out. *Tch. And I was in the mood for takeout too. Sad.* He kept walking. It's a fairly cold and windy night, but the cold isn't too harsh, it's rather soothing. The huge moon is shining in the sky, giving off an ethereal vibe. Yami kept walking. Although he's in an alley right now, it's not a dark one. The moonlight is blessing the whole area with its presence.

- "On this beautiful night, why must you make me kill, again?" Yami whispered quite sadly while he turned his head. A shadowy figure is standing not too far from him. It's wearing a Cherokee wolf mask. Murderous intentions coming from it are clear and extreme.

*Such disappointment...* Yami averted his gaze from the figure, ignoring it's existence completely. *A shame, whoever sent it clearly underestimated me, or they're evaluating my worth. Either one is advantageous as battle tactics, for me.* In the blink of an eye, Yami closed the distance between them. *Now then.....capturing alive will not be possible, demolition it is then,* he proceeded to hit it with a bandwidth of his aura, but jumped back at the last moment. His eyes narrowed, expression confused.

*It's not a conjuration...a humunculi?* Yami couldn't believe his own track of thoughts. But the feeling wouldn't go away. Conjurations don't have lives, so logically they don't have mana vessels or mana. They are basically elemental creations. But the specimen Infront of Yami clearly has an aura reflecting agony and fear. Yami hesitated for a second. Although the difference of speed between the two of them are too vast, it's still hunt or be hunted. Spacing out for even a second could prove to be fatal. Yami barely dodged the knife thrown at him at an incredible speed. *This won't do. I'll do what I have to.*

Now, Yami Kusakabe had to make a decision. Destroying a humunculi is very much different from destroying a conjuration. Humunculi contains soul fragments of a human, so destroying it basically means killing a human, to some extent. So now, he had to choose.

*At the end of the day, this is not a human. Welp, I'll try to capture it alive, but if it dies, it dies.* Yami skillfully dodged a couple more hits from it without much efforts. He quickly got closer to the humunculi, gently touched its mask, and recited the trigger.

- "Negate."

The mask swiftly came off its face, without any resistance. But what was behind the mask startled Yami. It was a middle aged women's face behind the mask. Her beautiful eyes were filled with tears and fear. Only a few words escaped from her pleading voice,

- "Help me....please...."

In a flash Yami realized what he had done.

*"S-self....destruction...?"*

- "Ah-huh, Lisa. So what did you think of Lionheart's proposal? Do you support this?"

- "No, I can't say that I support this. But the Grandmaster has already approved of this."

- "Ooh, nice one there", Laero said as he moved his knight. They're having a game of chess in the library as they discuss the current situation. " Have the students been informed yet?"

- "Not yet, no. They'll be informed today in class, so far as I know."

- "Oh? They're going this far now huh. What happened to the search and rescue operation?"

- "No idea. Wolfe, Lionheart and Estemoff are completely silent about this matter. I know something's been going on, but they're all my seniors, so I can't even ask them properly." The light coming from behind the cartons hanged Infront of the windows is pale golden, and soothingly warm, creating an oddly comfortable environment inside the Library. But this isn't suppressing Lisa's stress and restlessness. She clearly is annoyed at the fact that she's being ignored in such a serious situation.

- "What about the class representatives? Who're you going to choose this year? Is it going to be him again?"

- "I don't know yet. Yami....." Lisa sighed, "Yami's been going through a lot these days. He was absent at class today too. I'd rather not stress him more. Mirai can be a great substitution this year if Yami calls off the game."

- "You yourself are too stressed. Loosen up a bit." Laero castled his king. He's playing it safe, for now. "And you say that, but you know the difference between Yami and Mirai....ah. Your turn." Lisa Akane was getting more tensed with Laero's each move, not because she was losing, but because he was right. *I know, I know what my students are capable of. And I also know that be it in terms of sheer strength or tactical capability, Yami is far superior than most other second year students. The only two who are on par with him aren't really on good terms with each other either.*

- "He truly is special." Laero spoke again. "Many 3rd gen Sirius can manifest their abilities to 5th class by this age. But Yami truly outdoes others in terms of pure progression. You absolutely cannot ignore him. His presence or absence can turn the wheels of the tournament completely." Laero moved his bishop, "Careful now, you're losing this one."

- "Although you say that", Lisa sighed, she somehow looks a bit relived now, "You know I've lost haven't you?" She moved her queen. "Well? Tell me about home. How's Siri?"

- "She's doing fine. Her grades are good. Recently she found a strange affection for curry soup, I'm not sure why, she never really liked any kind of soups. Well I guess it's good in a way. She found herself some friends, she sometimes goes out to play with them, or so she said. I don't really mind, there's no one to look after her at home, and it's a friendly neighborhood. So everything should be okay.....well. Checkmate." Laero said with a joyful voice.

- "Huh. Well, it was getting late anyway. Glad to know that Siri now goes outside to play. I'm planning to come over next week to see how she's doing. I think I'm going to stay over at your place till her birthday. Yes, I haven't forgotten about it."

Laero smiled, his genuine happiness looked innocent like an infant's. "You'd better come!"

- "You guys sure are having a blast. It's about time for class to begin, Isn't it?" An extremely smooth and charming voice came from behind. None of them turned to look, because from the voice it was already clear who it was.

- "Alastair. You should come and play a hand with me sometimes."

- "My, you're certainly in a very good mood today, old man. But I'm afraid it'll have to wait." He looked at Lisa, "Let's head back."

- "When you come over next week take him with you." Laero said looking at Lisa. Wolfe didn't say anything, just stared at Laero for a couple of seconds and then shrugged.

- "You're Cyrus?"

- "Hmm?" Cyrus closed his handbook and looked up. A guy, physique looks pretty well built, looking at him with a sense of superiority in his eyes. There are two more students behind him, both from Cyrus's class, but they're not from new students.

- "I was asking if you're Elric Cyrus, the new 2nd year?"

- "Need something?"

- "Well kid, I got news. You are to meet up with Housemaster Alastair Wolfe right now. Go to 12th floor and wait in the lobby for others to join you. You'll be called in time." He looked back at the other two students, "take him with you. I'll find and send the last two in a few more minutes."

- "So what's this all about?" Cyrus asked the students who were escorting him, as he took off his earphones and put them in his pocket. None of them answered, and Cyrus didn't particularly seem too interested either, almost as if he asked it as an obligatory question.

Nothing really happened on the way, they didn't really talk to each other either. It was a cold atmosphere altogether, but that's about it.

Reaching the 12th floor, the atmosphere didn't change much. It's a huge auditorium, the biggest Cyrus has seen so far. There are other students, some look a bit uncomfortable, some nervous, some look indifferent. It's unclear if events like this have taken place before or not.

*We'll see.* Cyrus put in his earphones and closed his eyes.

- "Welcome everyone." Cyrus opened his eyes to the greeting. A tall handsome looking person, wearing something similar to a trench coat is addressing them from on top of the stage.

- "I'm sure most of you are wondering why you've been gathered here, what this is all about. To students who are new and haven't gotten a grasp on the situation yet, please be a little more patient. But first, let me introduce myself. I am Soul Crowley, assistant Grandmaster of Nightfall Academy. Now, as you guys know, the evaluation tests are coming up. And based on your results you'll be assigned a rank, a class. There are 5 classess in total for beginners, 1 being the non ability users and 5 being the peak of the beginner course. The beginner course consists of the first to third year students. After you've passed third year you'll be evaluated again and then will be granted an official license along with a new rank, there are 4 professional ranks, 6 being the casuals and 9 being the very best. After that there's one more rank, of course, the knight. One can achieve that rank after reaching knighthood. 4th and 5th year students are considered professionals since they have their licenses, and are recommended for knighthood nomination.

All the things I just said was to make sure you have the clear understanding of the Sirius program. Now for the next question, which I'm guessing most of you want the answer to, is why have only the selected few have been gathered here, while the announcement could easily be given in respected classrooms, right? Well, to put it simply, we could have done that, but all of you gathered here today are either new or transfer students of the beginner course, that is the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years. So we wanted to take a look at you, and clear out any confusion you may have about this situation. And by "we", I mean the current masterclass teachers present here today. Yes, the honoured ones are indeed present here and they've been observing you students. This has a fair bit of importance, because depending on your total score and rank, you may or may not be Assigned a master who will nurture you to grow your potentials. Take it as a scholarship of sorts. But there can only be so few students who may be chosen. The evaluation exams are going to be held after exactly one month from now, and the rewards are indeed worth the effort if you desire to grow beyond your limits, so do try to give it your best. More information about the evaluation tests will be announced at class today. Well, I'm afraid my stunning speech ends here, so I bid you farewell for now. Do your best, kiddos."

*"A scholarship of sorts, huh? Well, can't say it's not appealing enough. But the problem seems to be the competition here,"* Cyrus looked at the crowd, filled with youth and enthusiasm, *"everyone looks very challenging and capable. Well,"* He started walking towards the stairs, he still has to attend classes, *"I guess I'll give it my all and hope for the best."*

Yami kept staring at the exploded remains of the corps in front of him with blank eyes. He's quite shaken, and having a hard time processing the scene Infront of him. It wasn't a conjuration nor a humunculi, it was clearly a living breathing human being, and now she's dead. Even the remains aren't in one piece. Truly a gruesome scene.

*"This....can't be right...."* Yami feels thirsty, and nauseous at the same time. Being just a second year student, Yami never had to deal with direct death before, let alone something as gruesome as the minced pile of meat in front of him right now. His senses are painfully sharp, his survival instinct is kicking in. He feels extremely cold right now, yet he's sweating profusely. He has a strong feeling that he's being watched, and he feels like escaping is the right thing to do right now.

But as a Sirius, he can't just leave the situation as it is. Yami took out something like a pocket watch. It has long chain hanging from it. The clock inside seems broken, it's not ticking. Yami looked in front of him. For some reason, the moonlight can't clear out the darkness over there.

- "chronic pri-"

- "Oh wow. It seems my intuitions were right. You indeed are THE timewalker." Someone interrupted Yami. A silhouette of a man can be seen from afar. He's clapping his hands, slowly. Yami said nothing, but he carefully kept observing the figure.

- "Oooh would you look at that, you really did dodge a self destruction at point blank range, who would've known? How did you do it? How did you do the impossible? Hah I'm just messing with you. I know how you did it. Now now, no need to get wary. Not yet, at least. I just wanted to see you is all." The figure stopped moving. It looked up at the sky. "Well now that I've seen you personally, I'm satisfied." Without saying a word more, the figure vanished. No, more like, it got perfectly blended with the pitch black darkness im the back. Yami didn't do anything. He stood there, listening to the monologuing of the dark figure, and when it was done, he still stood there quietly and let it escape. Not because he wanted to, but because he couldn't move at all. An overwhelming fear blinded his mind. It felt to him like his lungs couldn't breath in enough oxygen. He was absolutely sure that he had came back from certain death. There was something ominous about that silhouette. Even after it was gone Yami couldn't bring his body to get moving instantly. And when it finally moved, Yami fell on his knees, trembling. His breathing abnormal, he's gasping for air.

*"What in the name of God was that? Human? Impossible. No human is capable of that kind of presence."* Yami closed his eyes, sweating bullets. *"My head hurts, it hurts so much."* His vision started to blur out. *"Damn, gotta get moving."* Yami forcibly tried to drag his body, but failed. At that point, due to extreme brain-piercing headache Yami lost his consciousness, on the cold night street.