Chapter 8. My Entrance Exam! But What Happened In Between?

"Anyway, let me thank you again for taking care of Jinhui," Jinlin said.

"So where will Jinhui go after the dinner? Would she stay with you until tomorrow?" Jun seemed 

"Aja-sa (Big sis), I think I will be okay to get back," Jinhui said, while her eyes was filled with confidence. 

"How about the bully who did the things to you?" Okuri expressed his concern, "I mean, he's still in your group at this point."

"That's okay. I mean, while the bully was there, I had passed the second part of the exam, which gave him no reason to bully me," Jinhui said. However, for me, it was still a bit concerning, as if they committed to what they said, they would not be bullies in the first place.

As the clock hit seven, we said goodbye to the instructors and head back to the dormitory. Even though Jinlin and the instructors were in favor of letting Jinhui stay with Jinlin, Jinhui still persisted to rejoin her group. However, it may still not be the worst choice, as least Jinhui regained the confidence we had not seen before.

Meanwhile, the Matake thing Haseku mentioned during the dinner still didn't make much sense for me. Even though it is quite normal for some people to some special abilities, such as expertise in channeling, as well as changing forms, I had never heard my parents mentioned anything about it. From what Haseku mentioned before, it must be an ability that was inherited from at least one of my parents. But who was the one having this ability? I thought, and why this person wanted to hide it?

 As our car arrived at the front door of the dormitory, we said goodbye to Jinlin and got ourselves settle down in our dormitory.

"What an eventful day," Jun said after lying on the sofa in the room, "It's just like a movie, where all the things happened in a such short time."

"That's true, isn't it?" Tenka said, "But at least the ending is good."

"Well, we also need to make sure we are prepared for tomorrow's exam, as we still have one day to go," Sukeo said. 

"That's true," I followed, "even though the instructors said we completed the interview part of the exam, there are still some other tests going on for tomorrow." Meanwhile, I was also curious about what I would face for tomorrow, as one the tests would be based on an ability that I had no idea about.

"And I'm thinking about Jinhui as well," Tenka said while loosening her ponytail, "Anyway I'm going to hit the shower now. Sara-cha, do you want to go to the shower together."

"Sure." Even though we had went through showers before, I still felt my body calling me to give a chance for full relax. As such, I headed to the changing and shower room with Tenka.

While we walked down the corridor, out of sudden, I heard someone was struggling: "Nooo!! just leave me alone!! I've already fulfilled what you said!"

"Is that Jinhui?" Tenka seemed to recognize the noise, "The bully must have found her."

We followed the sounded and rushed to the scene, seeing a heavily muscled young man blocking a short girl. As soon as I saw the hair of the girl, I soon realized she was indeed Jinhui, and the man was the same person we saw during the biking activity that had talks with her - he was the bully. 

"Hey, stop what you are doing here!" Tenka gave her warning.

"It's not your business," the bully replied, "Look, I'm not bullying her."

"Yes, you are, and you did it all the time," I followed. 

"You liar!" It seemed that Jinhui didn't buy in what the bully said, "I told you to leave me alone after I passed the second exam, and I did, but you still tried to do things on me."

"Shut up! You're the one who're making me look bad!" As the bully shouted out, he also got closer to Jinhui and put his body closer to her.

"Do you know what you did!?" Tenka rose her tone up and , "You almost killed her!"

"It's her fault to go that fast," the bully turned back and replied calmly, "she could choose to stay behind and everything should be fine."

"'Everything should be fine', by meaning you're going to bully her when no one's beside her," Tenka replied, "I've heard everything."

"Huh, that's you know, a figure of speech. It's her fault to take that literally."

"And, literally, you're the worst," I decided to intervene. 

Just as I finished my sentence, the bully turned his head down and 

"Yeah yeah yeah, indeed I'm the worst. Huh, who is this ? That's why they say SAIR is a golden mine of beautiful girls."

"Do you think you really get away with this!?" Tenka became more agressive.

"Haha of course, you should know who I'm really is," the bully had took off his cloth and revealed a tattoo. It was the family emblem of the Shiyami clan（石門), which is a predominate family in the National Defense system.

"So you're a Shiyami!?" Tenka was surprised.

"Of course I am. Not only that, my family have connection with members works within many parts of the government," the bully seemed even more fanatic. 

"What should we do, Sara-cha?" Tenka seemed to be panic. Indeed, the Shiyami clan was a major player in the federal government, and it was very hard for average people to find a way to overturn the table when encountering them, except -

"Ha ha," I made myself having the same menacing vibe as his.

"Um!? Why are you chuckling in front of me? Do you know what you are do- "

"If you're talking about your clan, then I have very a bad news for you, and you should know it even before entering the SAIR." 

"What do you mean?" It seemed to be that the bully still had no idea what I was talking about. If his family is one of the main branches of the clan, then he should have knew that this is a very serious warning.

"Indeed, SAIR intern program created a great platform for teenagers with special abilities to participate in missions, while building up a network regardless of backgrounds," I repeated the sentence that was written on the SAIR official website, "You think you're pretty much on top of your region. But don't forget, there are always people who have a better network than you. As an old saying: 'you can never see the full image of an ancient tree if you're in a fog.'"

"It's impossible! There is no way someone who has a more prestigious family could send their kids to SAIR!" 

"Even if so, you still think you're better than those who don't join the SAIR? It is a complete disaster for your family and your clan that someone like you find a dominant position in SAIR," I calmly replied. 

"It's not your place to lecture me, you little out-of-no-where girl!" It was clear his argument was starting to lose its foundation. 

"If the reason you came to SAIR is to assert your own dominance, then you may have come to the wrong place," as soon as I finished my sentence, I rolled up my ponytail and showed my neck to him. It was the place where I hid my family emblem - a Kashimi (Big Leaf Maple) leaf with three swords. 

"You- you're from the Sakashi family of the Peni!?" The bully had completely lost his charm as soon as he saw the family emblem. 

"You're surprised, huh, to find someone who's in the core circle of the nation on this your so-called 'playground'?"

As soon as I asked him, his face turned deeply red and his fist looked almost about to explode.

"You want to beat me, huh? This would make it not only your own scandal, but also your family and even your clan's scandal. You think you're strong enough, yet the only thing that hold your strength is barely the fame of your family rather than yourself. Plus, you're beating an defenseless girl, and you think this would make you look like the strongest man in the universe?"

"Ahhhhhhhh." With my last hit, the bully completely lost his argument. The only thing he could do was beating and kicking the ground. 

"Sara-cha, you're so badass!" Tenka couldn't hold her excitement. 

"I was thinking this guy has a better defense, only figured out the only thing made him bold is his family's influence." I commented.

Later the next day, Jinlin told me that the SAIR had noticed the loophole which made this "Shiyami" enter the SAIR and immediately withdrew his candidacy for the entrance exam. Interestingly enough, it seemed to be the bully had learned his lesson, as the instructors still gave him another chance for participating the entrance exam next year. I also heard from my father that the Shiyami clan was actually very happy after the investigation, as turned out the bully's connection with the actual Shiyami family was little, and the tattoo on his body was merely a decor to scare people off. 

Meanwhile, Jinlin also told me that it was its special relationship with some corrupted officials from both the local government and the SAIR East that actually made all of these possible. What made the whole plot more interesting was that further investigations revealed that the family had some connections with the local gangs. It perfectly matched with my hypothesis, as the bully really made the Shiyami clan looked like a criminal organization, which was far from the truth. 

"Thank you so much, Sara," Jinlin said.

"That's just something I can do to help your little sister," I replied.

"By the way, is the thing that you're from the Sakashi family real?"

I nodded.

"I couldn't believe it. I used to think that those people from the higher up don't really care about what's going on for us, but you seemed to be very different."

"But it seemed to be everyone had already knew that I'm from Sakashi, which was not safe for my family; meanwhile, people would also see me in a weird way as I have attracted unwanted attention."

"No no no, don't worry. The SAIR had made the whole thing anonymous, and they had stated it was me who initiated the investigation on this problem. Even if you're not actually from the Sakashi family, I'm still very grateful that you stood out for the justice."