Ragna found himself strained on a bed, definitely not where he fell asleep before he fell into his first nightmare. And soon the person which sat left to him noticed that he woke up. It was a beautiful women, maybe in her late twenties, with pale skin and short dark blue, maybe even black hair.
"Seems like you woke up, Sleeper Ragna"
'Sleeper, huh. I indeed conquered the first Nightmare and became a sleeper'
".. Miss, may I ask who you are and where I am ?"
The woman waited a second before answering his questions.
"I am ascended Jet or just Master Jet. And you are in a police station right now. Your parents found you sleeping on the ground and quickly brought you here, knowing you were taking your first trial right now. No one would have thought for you to take almost 5 weeks tho. Normally people only take a few days for their first nightmare, if they don't die before that of course."
"I see. ... so what happens now and would you mind releasing me ? Being attached to the bed doesn't exactly feel nice."
Master Jet quickly releases his from the bed and answered his question.
"Well, you can either join the Awakened Academy or just do your own thing till the winter solstice. I'd recommend going to the Awakened Academy tho since you'll receive free food and a place to stay and most importantly tuition. "
'The Awakened Academy ... I never thought i would get there but i always really wanted to. It's the place were the most known awakened went to.', thought Ragna
"Alright, I'll go to the Awakened Academy. I'm guessing you got the papers for me to fill out ?"
"Yeah, I do but you should probably take a bath first because 5 weeks without a bath isn't that nice. We can do the boring stuff after."
Ragna accepted her offer and went to the police station baths. Inside he started to take a hot and long shower.
'Finally some time to think. First of all I really want to check out my evolved attribute so lets quickly do that.'
[Heir of the Bloodangel]: "this title signifies that you are from the lineage of the Bloodangel. Your affinity to Blood knows no bounds as you gain more insight into the path."
'So I basically just got a higher affinity to blood. That's nice, I guess.
Okay, now I can finally think of what's important. How much of my powers will i make public ?
The Awakened Academy will definitely ask me many questions to my first Nightmare and what my attributes are and more.
But as far as I know they don't check if you said the truth or not. So should I tell them about my divine Aspect and True Name ?
Changing star also went to the Academy 2 years ago and she did tell them her True Name and now she's really popular, even if she's stuck in the Dream Realm right now. I don't think I'll tell them about my divine Aspect but my True Name ? I'll think about it later.'
Ragna got out of the shower and now wanted to test out his Aspectability, [Blood Catalyst].
[Blood Catalyst]: "By channeling your blood, you can unleash bursts of raw energy, enhancing your physical power or fueling destructive attacks. The more blood you sacrifice, the stronger the effect."
'So how exactly do I channel my Blood ?'
Ragna tested his ability for a few minutes and quickly found out how it worked. He needed to think about what he wanted to "augment" and then a thin layer of blood would appear around it, covering the place in red. He could either put it around his whole body, which made him twice as strong and fast or just on one body part, like his fist.
When he put it only around his fist the punch was way stronger, maybe three or four times as strong and fast. But another thing happened.
When he punched a small slice of blood appeared a meter in front of his fist
(think of it like when he only augments his fist or later sword and then he punches/slices, blood appears in front of it, having greater range and dealing more damage. The bloodslice will also grow the stronger he gets).
Ragna found out tho that he could only augment one thing. Either his body, a singular part of his body or an object. He couldn't for example augment and object and his body at the same time. Maybe if he got more insight into it he could do it later.
(Will be similar to Sunny and Nephis when they gain another Core but Ragna doesn't know it yet).
After Ragna was done testing out he went back to where Master Jet was.
She handed him paper and a pen.
"I already did all the paper work. You'll be joining the school a little late because it already started a month ago but you still have 5 months till you'll get send to the Dream Realm. You just need to sign twice, here and here."
Ragna quickly signed the papers and then asked
"When will we be going ?"
"Now."
And so Ragna now found himself in a car with Master Jet, Jet driving them in a Ptv. While driving they stayed quiet for most of the time but Jet sometimes asked him questions here and there.
"How was your Nightmare"
"Pretty easy actually ....till the moon crashed down onto me"
Jet raised an eyebrow but didn't ask further.
"Whats your Aspect rank ?"
"I'll keep that to myself"
This time Jet again didn't pry further.
"Your Flaw ?"
Ragna actually wanted to tell her his flaw-flaws since maybe she could help her and telling her wouldn't really set him back.
"Uhm .. I actually got two flaws because of some certain things. One lets me only satiate my hunger and thirst by drinking fresh blood of a different human and the other flaw sends out a scent that attracts Nightmare Creatures."
"Two flaws ? How ?"
Jet locked at Ragna with confusion since it was the norm that everyone would get one flaw, the better your Aspect the worse the flaw. So If Ragna got two flaws did that mean that Ragna got a really strong Aspect ?
Seeing Jet's expression full of questions, Ragna decides to answer.
"The multiple flaws have nothing to do with my Aspect, rather something with one of my Attributes. Let's Just say that I got cursed by something."
Of course Ragna didn't tell Master Jet the whole truth, especially because gaining a lineage, even if Ragna didn't know what that was, was defenitely not a curse but this should've been enough for her not to ask more questions.
***
After a while they arrived in front of the huge academy gates. The Academy or rather the campus was like a city itself. While driving to the main building Master Jet spoke again.
"There are three things i want to tell you about before i set you off.
"Firstly: The school administrators will offer you psychological counseling but since you don't seem emotionally hurt after your Nightmare I'd advice you to not go since they will also ask you about Information of your Nightmare and Aspect. Humans are dangerous so the less they know about you the better. But you probably already knew that.
Secondly: as you probably know you'll need to chose courses. You can pick whichever you want but I'd advice you to defenitely attend Wilderness Survival."
Since Ragna was a smart kid he quickly understood why. The Dream Real was a dangerous place and not only because of the monsters but also because of the place itself. Many unexpected things could happen so you should be able to know how to survive under harsh conditions.
"Thirdly: you should try to build up relationships with other dreamers, even if you don't like them. Trying to survive alone in the Dream Realm is a death sentence."
"Thank you Master Jet, I'll keep your advice in the back of my head."
And a while later they finally arrived. Jet gave him a few more tips before driving off and leaving Ragna alone.
Ragna walked inside of the main hall and there were many people, dreamers and awakened, just like him.
Jet told him before that the students and administrators would meet up every month, accepting the new dreamers and guiding them.
And as Fate wanted it, the start of a new month was exactly right now.
So, just like him, most of the kids in this big room were newly awakened and would attend the Academy soon.
And of course, most kids were talking right now, boasting about how they survived their Nightmare, what they earned and how "great" their Aspects were. There were also some outliers of course, Ragna included. He basically just leaned against the wall and observed.
'Jet told me to talk with people and build relationships but I was never really good with people so how do I start ?'
Thankfully Ragna didn't need to approach someone because soon someone approached him.
She was tall, unbelievably so, towering over Ragna. She easily stood at atleast 190 centimeters.
(about 6'2/6'3 for you Americans)
She had long purplish Hair that cascaded down her back. She also had a confident expression ... and lets say a nice bossom.
"Hey, whats your Name ? I'm Celeste. Hmnhnm, the stars above you shine so brightly. You're a special one, am I right ? Wanna be friends ?"
Ragna just looked at her calmly, which didn't suit with what he was about to say.
"The fuck do you mean the stars shine brightly over me ? Are you some crazy astrology chick ? Why should I want to be friends with you ?"
Celeste backed off a little with shock but then cleared her throat before starting to grin slightly.
"Tough guy, eh ? I'm not some "crazy astrology chick". But all my powers have something to do with space tho. And as I said, the stars shine brightly above you."
Then Celeste suddenly moves forward, whispering into Ragna's ear so only he could hear.
"You have a True Name, right ? Got it just after your first Nightmare ... just like me"
After saying that Celeste stepped back, acting carefree with her grin while Ragna froze.
'H-how does she know ? I didn't tell anyone about my True Name.'
Ragna furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he looked at the tall purple haired girl.
"Fine, I'll become "friends" with you. Someone told me to build relationships in the Academy anyways so I guess this is a good start."
Celeste's grin grew wider as she pressed her finger against Ragna's nose teasingly
"Oh i know you would say that, the stars told me. We'll become great friends!"
Ragna shrugged her finger off and scoffed.
"Yeah sure, happy to meet you, Celeste. I'm Ragna by the way."
After that Celeste asked Ragna to talk somewhere more private. Since he didn't see anyone else that could be special to him he decided to just go with her.
——-Author's Notes——-
Words: 1853
Chapter a little bit late since I have been working on a presentation for school today.
Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter.
It's pretty late for me so I won't write much here
Peace ✌️