The Ceremony Begins (1/2)

After untangling Jacob, Mrs. Cardona grabs a bag from the side, smiling. She says, "Is this yours?"

Surprised, Jacob looks around his room for his bag, but to no avail. Lifeless, he returns to the front of his door, where his mom awaits.

Getting up, she glances at him before tossing his bag toward him. "Don't forget your bag this time. Your ceremony is at nine o' clock, and it's currently ten minutes past seven."

Getting up, Mrs. Cardona starts walking downstairs to make breakfast for herself and Mr. Cardona.

As Jacob watches his mother walk down the stairs, he hugs his bag.

After she was out of sight, Jacob starts getting ready for the ceremony.

Going to his drawer, he picks out his attire for the ceremony. The outfit consists of a standard uniform color, white, and a red scarf that his mother had given him for Christmas before. The shoes are pure black leather, and the jacket has an insignia, almost identical to the emblem that his grandpa had given him; however, it was black.

Afterward, Jacob got his towel, shampoo, and a washcloth. Heading for the bathroom, Jacob takes a quick shower before getting out and drying up.

As he heads back to his room, Jacob prepares his breakfast in his head.

Going into his room, Jacob hangs his moist towel on the hanger of the wall. Walking to his bedside, he equips his watch on his wrist, then puts on his clothes.

Finished changing, he grabs his phone and puts it in his pocket while picking up his envelope bag.

Walking outside his room, Jacob closes the door behind him and walks downstairs.

Upon reaching the kitchen, Jacob is greeted by his mother and father at the kitchen table, eating BLT sandwiches. Knowing that it would be rude for him not to say anything, Jacob smiles at his parents and greets them with small talk, while he makes his breakfast.

Curious, Mrs. Cardona asks Jacob what he will be making, replying to her, he says, "I'm making a standard omurice with gravy."

Aware of his mother's thoughts, he explains further, "Omurice is an omelet that covers fried rice, traditionally served with ketchup on the side or top of it. The version that I'm making is the Japanese version, around the 21st-century. People made the fried rice and topped it with a half-cooked omelet and topped it on the fried rice, before cutting the omelet and unleashing the warm or hot egg inside. After that, they topped the dish with different combinations of flavors and toppings, but I'm going to be using gravy and chopped chives."

Jacob starts off by warming up some gravy in a pot that was in the fridge and heating up some fried rice. Afterward, he scrambles his eggs in a bowl before seasoning them with salt and pepper and putting them onto a preheated skillet.

While in the midst of making his omelet, Jacob lowers his sleeve to look at the time, startled he almost overcooks the omelet.

"Oh, so close! I almost messed up my precious food. It's already eight o' clock" Said, Jacob as he prepares to take out the omelet.

Topping the omelet on the prepared fried rice that's on the plate, he brings the entire dish to the corner of the stove.

Taking a sharp knife from the drawer, Jacob cuts open a small slit right through the middle of the omelet, effectively splitting it.

Right after he released the mouthwatering, and succulent egg yolk, using a ladle, Jacob places a ladleful of warmed up gravy onto the dish and a sprinkle of chopped chives, afterward he brings it toward the table to eat.

Finishing their food, both husband and wife start to head out. Before leaving, Mr. Cardona glances one last time at his son with a smile on his face, mumbling, "He can even make omurice now, following the footsteps of his grandfather was the right choice after all."

Sitting down, Jacob takes a spoon and presses it down sideways, cutting past the omelet smoothly. Reaching the rice, he takes a spoonful of both, the rice and omelet. As Jacob eats the spoonful of food, the flavors create a perfect fusion in his mouth. Similar to fire and water, the flavors clash, then produce something new, something delicious and mouthwatering.

Finishing the food in one spoonful at a time, Jacob spends five minutes embracing the flavor explosions in his mouth.

Noticing that he didn't prepare a drink, Jacob walks to the fridge and pours himself a glass of juice, mixing orange juice, a little bit of concord grape juice and a teaspoon of sugar.

Devouring his concoction, Jacob belches before rolling up his sleeves, taking off his watch, and cleaning all of their dishes.

Finished with the dishes, Jacob dries his hands off and puts his watch back on.

Looking at his watch, it shows fifteen minutes past eight o' clock.

Pouting, he says in a low voice, "I have too much time on my hands right now. I think I should call grandpa; maybe he can drop me off at school." with that thought in mind, he takes his phone out of his pocket and finds his number." ah, where is his number... oh, there it is."

Beep!

"Grandpa, grandpa, I need your help!" Said, Jacob in a high pitched voice.

In the phone, a voice transmits through, sounding confused, "You stinking brat, what trouble did you get into this time?"

Immediately, black lines appeared on Jacobs' forehead, gritting his teeth, he asks, "Are you implying that I get into trouble a lot?

"..."

Silence came from the phone, after that question.

Knowing that they weren't getting anywhere, Jacob decides to go straight to the point, asking he says, "Grandpa, can you drive me to the ceremony?

"...Ok, I'll be there in a few minutes" Said, Grandpa Galen.

Click.

Filled with more black lines on his forehead, Jacob mumbles, "I didn't even get to say goodbye, or I love you."

Knowing that his grandfather wasn't going to come in a while, he decides to unlock the door and doze off on the living room couch.

A few minutes after Jacob dozed off, Grandpa Galen opens the door and comes inside the house.

"My dear grandson, where are you?"

Looking around, Grandpa Galen calls out to Jacob. Despite looking around for quite some time, Grandpa Galen is still unable to find him.

As Jacob takes out his phone, the time shows 8:32 AM. Knowing that he needs a break, Grandpa Galen goes to the living room and sits down on the couch, but once he sat down, he felt something weird poke at his butt.

"what's poking me? This old couch needs to be changed."

In a muffled tone of voice, "grandpa, that's my head your sitting on."

Feeling the vibrations from his butt, Grandpa Galen jumps up and looks at the couch in bewilderment. "Jacob, how did you end up under me?"

"Why were you on top of me?"

"..."

Without another word, Grandpa Galen walks out of the house.

"Wait for me!!" Jumping out of the couch in a hurry, Jacob catches up to his grandfather just in time.

Outside the house, Grandpa Galen looks at Jacob with a straight face, "Why are you following me?"

"Grandpa... I said sorry, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't."

"Well I did now; that's all that matters."

"Just get in the car."

"Ok, sir."

"I'm your grandfather. Don't call me sir."

"Ok, grandpa sir."

"..."

While they were chatting on their way to the car, Grandpa Galen begins to regret every single second of their walk.

In front of the car, Jacob asks his grandfather how to get into it, "Grandpa, how do you go into the car?"

"Just into the damn car before I throw you in there myself."

"But I don't know how-."

Impatient, Grandpa Galen opens the back seat and throws Jacob into the car.

Boom.

"Grandpa that hurt."

"Suck it up." Said, Grandpa Galen, as he walks to the driver seat.

Click.

Opening the car door, Grandpa Galen sits down on the front seat and closes both his door and the back door with a button. As he looks at Jacob, he gives him a meaningful smile, "Are you ready for school?"

Confused by that question, Jacob buttons his seatbelt and says, "I guess so-."

Before he could fully answer, Grandpa Galen turns the car on, going full speed.

Whoosh!

Turning left and right at inhuman speeds, Jacob vomits all over the backseat of the car."

"Grandpa, I don't feel good."

"Barf."

Smiling, Grandpa Galen stops the car at the front of the Sage Sect.

"Welcome to the Sage Sect." Turning around, his smile freezes, "Jacob, what is all this?"

"It's throw-up." Said Jacob with a guilty expression.

Noticing his expression, Grandpa Galen could no longer put on an angry front and looks at the damage that his grandson had inflicted in his brand-new car.

"That's a lot of damage..."

"Grandpa, it's throw-up, not physical damage."

"I'm just exaggerating..."

"Yea, sure. My pants have some throw-up on it too."

"Change your pants quick; here is an extra pair to change into."

As Jacob changes his pants, his grandfather presses a couple of buttons and sets a timer on the car wheel.

Finishing changing his pants, Jacob exits the car and goes on the sidewalk. Looking back at the car, he notices his grandfather exit and foam erupts inside the car, along with some type of liquid.

When his grandfather closes in, he points toward the car with a questioning gaze.

"That is just the clean feature. It is installed in all of the latest cars if you pay a high enough price for it." Said, Grandpa Galen.

"Oh."

Nodding his head, an understandable expression appears on Jacobs' face, "Rich people really do have it different."

As if understanding, Grandpa Galen nods and says, "Let's go, I have to give a welcoming speech, and you need to get seated."

Walking past Jacob, Grandpa Galen reveals a golden emblem, walks past the guards and goes through the massive gates.

After Grandpa Galen goes through the gates, the guards gossip a little bit, behind his back.

"Hey, did you hear that grandmaster Galen chose to give his grandson...that thing."

The guard makes a shape with his hands.

Shocked, the other guard goes and stops him in the midst of his drawing.

"Where did you hear that? You know that we can be fired for saying that, right?"

"Saying what?" Appearing in front of the guards is a young boy, around fifteen years old with a new student academy outfit. This boy is Jacob.

Tense the guards look at Jacob wearily, tense one of the guards was about to say something before he notices the color of the boy's emblem on his clothing.

Looking at Jacobs emblem, the guards relax.

"You didn't hear? The guy that just entered was Grandmaster Galen, one of the twelve Grandmasters of our sect."

Curious, Jacob thinks back to his grandfather's attitude with him and asks, "How is he like?"

The guards look at each other for a moment before one of them speaks up, "He is very erratic, known as the most unstable out of all the grandmasters; however, he is also the most accomplished; known as the closest to becoming a food sage."

For a moment, Jacobs' eyebrows shot up but relaxed soon after, showing his emblem that his grandfather gave him, he enters the Sage Sect smoothly."

Entering the Sect, he is welcomed by a grand hall, hundreds of feet high. Chandeliers, lamps, crystals of all varieties and artistic paintings from the reconstruction era.

Walking around the vast hall, near a gold pillar, he notices a translucent sign that is floating in mid-air. The sign wasn't huge, but standing in front of the huge open door, it seemed like a gateway, a key.

Standing in front of the floating sign, he notices an emblem shape on one side and a set of words on the other side.

Reading the words, Jacob follows the instructions. He places his emblem directly in front of the sign but having enough space to put a hand in between.

A few moments later, the emblem shape releases a blue colored light with an occasional electric shock, directly at the wooden emblem in Jacobs' hand.

Zap! Zap! Zap!

Burning with anticipation, Jacob looks at the scene, feeling the heat energy transferring onto him.

"I wonder what is going to happen."

Waiting for an entire minute, Jacob looks at the emblem with astonishment. The emblem was slowly disintegrating and going into the blank emblem shape.

Once it was done, the full image, color included was transferred into the sign.

Suddenly, the words on the side changed, showing:

Emblem type: Special Second Class.

Material: Engineered Wood.

Current Owner: Galen Christopher Cardona.

Status: Transferring.

Uses: can be used as a portable spatial pocket, access to certain areas within the Sage Sect, and access to the exclusive network.

How to change ownership: Press palm onto the image to transfer.

Requirement(changed): Must be of the Cardona bloodline.

Placing his palm on the emblem, he feels a burning sensation in his palm. Lifting it up, he points his palm up to his face, "Amazing."

On his palm, an exact picture of the emblem was shown, vivid and lifelike.

Once the sign was finished, the words went back to their original instruction, and the emblem shape no longer had anything showing.

The moment that the emblem was imprinted on his palm, a load of information was telepathically inputted into his brain. Staring dazed for a moment, his eyes go completely grey and red lines spread from his eyes, all the way around his face.

Waking up, Jacob looks around and finds out that a line formed behind him; however, everyone on the line was looking at him with weird looks.

Noticing that they were looking at him with a strange expression on their face, he looks at the boy directly behind him and asks, "What's wrong?"

Replying in a straightforward manner, he says, "We are supposed to wait for the distribution of emblems by the administration before we can claim ownership. Once we claim ownership, then we can go past the sign and enter the auditorium."

"Oh, that's what that was."

With his question cleared up, Jacob starts walking to the auditorium, not caring about his image at all.

"Woah!"

Once Jacob gets past the door, he is visited by a grand hall. Looking at the vast hall, Jacob wonders how many people can fit in here."

Walking around, he notices a slant in the ground, curious, Jacob continues down where the slant leads and finds a vast room, lined up with chairs and desks.

Not knowing if he was in the right room, Jacob heads back to the hall to explore some more.

"Stop right there!"

A feminine voice sounds out from across the room.

As if Jacob doesn't hear that voice, he continues on his way toward the hall.

"I said stop!"

The feminine voice sounds out again but with a touch of anger this time.

Abruptly, Jacob bolts toward the door before he gets caught by whoever that voice belongs to. Running, he goes through the door in an instant. Confusing himself, Jacob continues to run and heads down toward a different door on the side.

"If you don't stop...uh... I'll get mad!"

Right behind him, the person with the feminine voice continues to yell, catching up to him.

Curious, Jacob looks back to see the person yelling and completely freezes upon seeing her.

A pale skinned girl around the same age as Jacob with beautiful, smooth, silky black hair and long legs appears within Jacobs line of sight.

Running at high speeds, Jacob slams into a pillar head-first, knocking out.

"She's so beautiful," Was the last thought Jacob had before he was knocked unconscious.