Chapter 2: Initiation

"Urgh..." Shinto's eyes slowly begin to open again. He blinks multiple times before his eyes properly adjust to his current environment. He slowly sat up and analyzed his surroundings. "Wait... where am I?" His head moved rapidly back and forth. The room was fairly small and was painted a pink color with white flower patterns splattered about and stuffed animals sprawled out on the floor. He was lying in a bed with pink sheets and a blue bear plushie next to him."This... isn't my room... right?" He sat up and crossed his arms. "Urgh! My memory is fuzzy. I can't really remember anything." Then pictures of a fire flashed in Shinto's eyes. "Ah! I remember..." he sobbed. "My family... They're... gone..." Shinto shook his head. "No! that can't be! This has to be a nightmare!" Determined to prove that wrong, he lifted the covers off of him and jumped out of bed. He approached the door in the room and opened it.

He was greeted by a small hallway that led to a living room that had one door on both sides. Shinto stumbled through the hallway, barely able to keep his balance and was greeted by a sweet voice. "Good morning!" The girlish voice said.

"Morning..." Shinto replied, still half asleep. Shinto slowly turned his gaze to where the voice came from. "Wait..." his gaze met hers. "What?!" He screamed. After finally realizing what was going on. He took a long time to actually look at the girl. She had long light blue hair and sapphire eyes that seemed to sparkle, and she had a warm smile on her face. She was wearing an apron and some casual clothes as she cooked what smelt like pancakes. She looked at Shinto innocently.

"Morning!" She closed her eyes and smiled. "How'd you sleep?"

"Hold on, who are you? What am I doing here?" Shinto began to look around frantically. He still doesn't fully understand what happened last night.

She was staying completely calm about the situation. "I'm Sakuya Hiyori. Nice to meet you!"

Shinto stared into Sakuya's eyes as he thought of what to say next. "Those eyes..." he thought for a second. "You're the girl I saw last night, right?"

"Mhm!" She smiled, "And what's your name?"

"I'm..." Shinto hesitated, "Shinto Shirama. What happened? Why am I here?"

"Last night at 5PM, there was a heavy thunderstorm that caused the city to go pitch black. I happened to see you stumble by the bridge not far from here, unconscious and soaking wet from the storm, so, using my wind powers, brought you here." She explained.

"Thank you." His voice was shaking. "I wasn't in my right mind back there. And... a lot has happened..." his eyes shook wildly, and his pupils shrunk in fear.

She placed both hands on Shinto's right hand. "You look bothered." She said sympathetically. "Would talking about it help?"

Shinto shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just can't." Sakuya let go of Shinto's hand. There was a moment of silence as they both glanced at each other. "You mentioned using wind powers, right? were you joking?"

"Huh? Oh, right, that. That's my magic element." She took a few steps back. "Come forth, Fafnir!" A gust of wind swirled at the palm of her hand and formed a sleek katana with a greenish-blue handle and a dragon design engraved on the hilt. She grasped the katana and held it up for Shinto to look at.

"That's cool!" He studied the blade and looked back up at Sakuya. He suddenly remembered something important. "That reminds me, where exactly are we?"

"We're currently in Shinshetsu academy. A school made for people with Soul Skills like me." She puffed her chest out like she looked proud.

"What are Soul Skills?"

"You don't know?" She sounded offended. "Things like my katana, Fafnir. They're magical weapons that grant the user power and magic that's specific to that user. Almost everyone has them."

"Really?" Shinto thought to himself for a second. "Does that mean I have on, too?" Shinto said, interested.

"I wish I could say, but unfortunately, I'm not too sure." She shook her head. "Even if we wanted to take an aptitude test, I doubt it'd be worthwhile." Sakuya said reluctantly

"How so?"

"As I said, almost everyone has a Soul Skill, but that doesn't mean everyone." She explained. "Most people end up developing their Soul Skills at an early age, but for the people that don't, they usually don't have Soul Skills."

Shinto thought for a few seconds, "I'd still just like to check regardless, if that's okay? I'm intrigued."

She sighed, "Fine~. But I want to eat first. I ended up making enough pancakes for both of us, so help yourself." She brought out a few plates from the cabinets and put 3 pancakes on each plate. She set the plates on the table with forks and knives. She brought out the butter and the syrup and put them in the middle of the table. They both picked up their forks and knives. Shinto ate all of his pancakes with the ferocity of a boar. His pancakes were gone in the blink of an eye.

"Those were some of the best pancakes I've ever had." He said as he laid back in his chair.

Sakuya burst into laughter, "You must have been starving! I've never seen someone eat as fast as you have." She blushed. "Thank you for the compliment." They cleaned off their plates and put it in the sink, then decided headed out of the dorm.

As Shinto walked out of the door, he was greeted by bright neon lights. "Huh?" Shinto placed his hand horizontally on his forehead as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. He looked around. "What is this place?!" The area around him looked like a city ripped out of a sci-fi movie. Lots of glowing neon lights, blue strings of neon lights scattered in the air, and ads flying across billboards.

"Have you been living under a rock?" Sakuya mocked. "This is Vesta city, known to common folk as 'the city from the future'"

"City from the future?" Shinto looked back at Sakuya as a gust of wind blew his hair to his left, covering his left eye. "Why's it called that?"

"Because this city stands out compared to other cities in the rest of the world." She leaned against the railing. "The technology here is incredible."

Shinto looked back at the tall skyscrapers piercing the skies. ("Something about this seems wrong...") he thought to himself as he gazed off into the distance. ("I don't remember a city like this existing.")

"Anyways," Sakuya tapped Shinto's shoulder, breaking his train of thought. "we need to head for the Vesta City Main Building."

"Yeah." Shinto looked at Sakuya for a second, then reverted his gaze to the skyscrapers. "Okay." They walked down the stairs leading to Sakuya's dorm. After walking down the stairs, they take a left and walk down a sidewalk that was near the skyscrapers. Walking along the sidewalks let them gaze at the different stores in the city. The first ones they saw were a clothes shop with a maniquen wearing a pink jacket, a light blue shirt, jeans, and a leather purse on display. This was followed by a bakery with many different styles of bread and pastries on display followed with a sweet scent.

They kept walking down the sidewalk for roughly ten minutes before they took another left and got to the biggest building in the city. "This is the Vesta City Main Building." Sakuya said as she pointed at the building. The front had a badge with a sigil of a Phoenix on it.

"It's huge." Shinto replied, tracing the height of the building with his eyes.

"Is something the matter?" Sakuya tilted her head at Shinto.

"Huh?" Shinto shook his head. "No, it's nothing. Let's just get this thing done."

"Alright!" Sakuya said as she grabbed Shinto's hand and began running towards the entrance.

"Hey! Wait!" She was running faster than an average human, and Shinto was having trouble keeping up. He kept tripping as she ran at mach speeds. They quickly neared the big black automatic doors and slipped right into the building. "Did you really have to go so fast?"

"Hehehe..." She laughed, scratching her cheek. Shinto wasn't amused. "A-anyways, we're here." She said, walking towards the big doors to the building.

"Woah..." Shinto gave the building a quick once over before entering. The entire building was a deep black color. The carpets were grayish, the walls were black, the leather chairs were black, and the tables were a smooth black color. The only things that weren't black or gray were the front desk and potted plants. The reception woman was wearing a tuxedo with a red tie and a black hairband. She had short brown hair and brown eyes.

They both walked up to the front desk. The woman was on call with someone, nodded, and put the phone down after muttering a few words. She looked up at the entrance and bowed. "Welcome! How may I help you today."

Sakuya walked up to her with her poker face. "Hello. We'd like to speak with the mayor, please. It's regarding an aptitude test."

The receptionist nodded. "You caught her at the best time. She just finished up her stack of paperwork for the afternoon. Let me just buzz you guys right in, and you'll be good to go." She pressed a button and talked into a small microphone. There was a muffled voice that came out of a speaker near it. The receptionist nodded and looked back at the duo. Just stepped into this elevator and headed to the 12th floor. Walk down the hallway and take a left at the big double doors."

"Thank you." She walked towards the elevator. "Come on, Shinto." He followed behind her into the elevator and pressed the button for the 12th floor. They proceeded to walk down the hallway and opened the double doors.

In the back of the room near the big windows was a black desk with a woman with long black hair and sharp black eyes in tuxedo with a black tie, black skirt, and white gloves. She was sitting with her head resting on her hands, and she had sunglasses that rested on the top of her head. She looked up from her desk. "Oh, hello, Sakuya." The lady said.

"Hello, Mrs. Shizuka. It's good to see you again." Sakuya replied, lifting her skirt and bowing.

"Indeed it is." She said as she took a quick smoke. "So, how can I help you today?"

Sakuya cleared her throat. "This boy here requested an aptitude test."

"And who might this be?" Mrs. Shizuka questioned, leaning forward.

"Oh. I'm Shinto Shirama. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Mrs. Shizuka got up from her office chair and approached one of the file drawers that were categorized as in the first letter of their last names. As she flipped through the files, her face turned to a slightly shocked expression. ("That's odd. There's no record of this boy from any nation... hmm...") she thought to herself as she scanned through the files. She decided to go along with the request regardless and opened one of the drawers and took out a glass ball on a purple cloth. "This glass ball will be able to tell us your aptitude. Though it's no ordinary glass. It's a glass made from sand that's been sitting near Luminite for hundreds of years." She walked back to her desk and placed the glass ball on the desk in front of Shinto. "All you need to do is touch this ball, and we'll get enough information."

"Okay." Shinto nodded and walked towards the foot of the desk and placed his hand on the ball. "Like this?"

"Yes." Shizuka replied.

Shinto placed his hand on the glass ball. It took a couple of seconds, but a white mist began to swirl around in the glass ball. "You do have an aptitude!" Sakuya cheered. But that wasn't all that happened. Shortly after, many other colors began to swirl around in the ball. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple, etc.

"That is enough." Shizuka barked at Shinto. He quickly took his hand off of the ball. "That should be all for now. Looks like you're in, Mr. Shirama." She handed Shinto a badge. "I'll message you the details later on through the day."

"'I'm in'? In what?" Shinto questioned.

"Why, Shinshetsu academy, of course."

"Wait, Shinshetsu academy?! But- I never agreed to this!"

"Good job, Shinto! Let's get going now!" Sakuya cheered him on. She started dragging him out of the room.

"Hey- wait!" they walked out of the doors, and the doors slammed closed, muffling his voice.

Mrs. Shizuka sat back down at her desk and lit a cigarette. After a minute, she got back up and scanned through the documents once again. "How does a kid with this much elemental aptitude simply not exist in any of the records?" She unbuttoned one button from her that revealed a necklace with a key shaped as a sword. She took off the necklace and put it in a keyhole on another drawer, and searched through those files, too.

She pulled one of the files out. "There's only one thing I can think of..."

End of Chapter 2...

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