Mark awoke to an unfamiliar room. The wooden ceiling greeted him. Mark soon realised that the ‘ceiling’ was a little too close to his face, it was instead, the wooden floor of the bunk bed above him. 

Mark sat up, scanning the room around him. It was a traditional Japanese-styled room, with a sliding door made of a wooden frame and translucent cloth that allowed some sunlight to enter the room. Similarly, the other walls were also made of wood, and had translucent woven fabrics to allow some light in. In the centre of the cosy room, was a table that had some cushions around it. Next to the bunk beds were cabinets that were more modern-styled, but still made of wood to maintain the aesthetic of the room. In the far corner of the room, a mirror was propped up. 

Mark glanced to his right, another set of bunk beds stood on the other side of the room, and on them were two familiar faces.

Ahh, right, I moved into the dorms…

“Hey Ozai, he’s awake!” Vince said, taking his attention away from the smartphone he was holding in his hand. Vince was in a black shirt and grey slacks, casually leaning against his pillow.

Ozai was in a white shirt and striped black pyjama pants. He had some earphones on but took them off when Vince talked. He held out a peace sign with his hands, like a greeting to Mark.

“You sure were knocked out after yesterday. You slept for over 12 hours!” Vince exclaimed, a smirk on his face. 

Mark was stunned. 

Over 12 hours?

“What?!” Mark shouted in shock, grabbing his smartphone which was lying next to him on the bed to check the time. 

8.30 am. 

“Crap! I’m late!” Mark sprang out of bed, searching the room for his school uniform. 

“Late? For what? Lessons don’t start till 9 …” Vince mentioned, confused as to why Mark was in such a rush. 

“9? What are you talking about?” Mark asked, visibly confused. 

“Wait, neither Shen-sensei nor Khan-sensei told you? You’re studying at SAIB now. To be an exorcist, remember?” Vince reminded Mark.

Mark suddenly realised what that meant. He didn’t fully realise that wanting to be an exorcist meant dropping out of school. 

“Hey guys!” The sliding door slid open, revealing Khan, in a black shirt and jacket with beige pants. 

“Oh, glad to see you’re finally awake…” Khan smirked, looking at Mark.

“Khan? Wait, what’s this about me not going to school anymore? I only remember consenting to move into the dorms?” Mark asked Khan. 

“Well, you fell asleep before we got to the official briefing. Yes… you don’t have to go to your school today…But you didn’t drop out of school…” Khan answered.

Mark raised an eyebrow. 

“We can’t just pull you out of school because we figure you might still have to go to school to deal with Ruby’s connection there. Ozai and Vince will be studying full time here, but you will be going to school two days a week to still keep in contact with your classmates and get your regular dose of education. We’ll supplement your education here and include our exorcism curriculum too. We’ve already written to your school saying you’ve been accepted to a prestigious religious studies school and will be studying here part-time and they’ve accepted it. So don’t worry about it!” Khan smiled

“Isn’t that too convenient?” Mark asked, but Khan ignored him, gesturing for everyone to follow him. 

“Follow me, don’t forget your prayer beads for class and to change into your uniforms. Also, Mark, we’ll have most of your stuff delivered to us soon. So your side of the room may be a bit empty for now…” Khan said as he closed the sliding door.

Vince, Ozai and Mark started putting on their uniforms and pocketing their prayer beads. Their uniforms were a three-piece set. A black pants with a black belt, a white button-up shirt and a black blazer. 

Ozai’s white shirt had a collar that rose to his mouth, hiding it in place of his bandana. His blazer had a hood attached to it, making it more like a hoodie. When pulled down, it seemed like it could hide Ozzai’s eyes. But Ozai still chose to wear a blindfold

Vince’s uniform was standard, except his shirt was black and his blazer was made of waterproof material and had a zipper, making it more like a windbreaker. 

Mark’s one was simpler, his uniform pants were slightly baggier, made of a different material, closer to track pants. His blazer was also thinner and closer to a running jacket. Mark took a good look at himself in the mirror. He looked tired. His dark hair was slightly messy from just waking up. He swept his wavy bed head down, his hair was long enough that it was weighed down easily, coming down to just past his ears.

“Hope you guys appreciate the uniforms that we made to cater to your specific spirit contracts and abilities,” Khan said as he opened the sliding door fully and led them to the veranda.

A blast of greenery greeted them, wide green pastures, pebbled pavements and wooden walkways were laid out before them. The sound of water trickling and flowing under the wooden arches and next to the walkways provided a sense of serenity and zen to the place. 

There were similar homely looking buildings built in a circle surrounding a green pasture in the centre.

The space they were exposed to was huge, it felt like an entire village could live here. 

Mark’s memory was hazy, he couldn't remember how he even got here. 

Khan led them down the pebbled pavement and over the wooden bridge, heading towards the green pasture in the centre, where a simple red temple gate lay. The gate had some unrecognisable symbols written on it.

“I’ve made this myself… a temple gate imbued with my ability. Take a step through…” Khan moved to the side, allowing the 3 guys to step through. 

Mark took a step forward and immediately found himself standing in the corridor of an office building. Mark recognised that he was in the SAIB building. He looked behind him. The place he seemingly exited from was a small empty room. Khan suddenly appeared in front of Mark, blocking his view. 

“Follow me!” Khan spoke, closing the door to the empty room behind them. 

“My ability allows me to bend space to my advantage, I can also imbue my ability into certain objects, which is why some of our doors can lead you to unexpected places…” Khan opened another door. 

Mark was expecting to be transported to another place, but it was just an ordinary classroom. Hannah and Mai were already seated, with Shen sitting at the teacher’s desk. He was wearing a dress shirt with a tie and a beige blazer, all in impeccable condition. Only the scar on his left eye broke that image.

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s begin your orientation proper…” Shen stood up, greeting the new trainees.

Elsewhere…

The boy struggled to stay conscious, he was losing too much blood. 

“Fuck!” The boy spat. His blazer was torn at the sleeves, revealing his bare arms. Both of which were bleeding from numerous wounds. The boy continued to back away from the figure approaching him, till he met a wall at the end of an alleyway. The boy slumped back, using the wall for support, his breathing getting heavier and heavier. 

“Dead end huh?” The figure approaching him spoke. As the figure stepped closer, his features came into focus. He was an older man, grey streaks of white hair could be seen on the sides of his head. His hair was slicked back, neatly styled, and he had a gentleman’s moustache paired with a goatee. The man was dressed well, a gold monocle rested on his face and a black trench coat wrapped his body. Beneath the trench coat, the man was wearing an immaculate three-piece suit.

The boy reached into his pockets, pulling out a set of prayer beads. By this point, the boy was already sitting down, his legs had lost the strength to keep his body upright. His spiky brown hair was stained with his blood as he slid down the wall.

“Ahhh, what a familiar sight… the exorcist prayer beads…” The man spoke as if he was reminiscing.  He knelt in front of the boy, reaching out to hold the boy's hands which were gripping onto the prayer beads.

“ ‘When an exorcist deems that they might be killed in the line of action, they must break their prayer beads to ensure that the chances of them becoming a vengeful spirit is lowered significantly.’ That’s what they told you on the first day, didn’t they… 

“Have you ever questioned why that would be the first thing they teach you? The first day you commit yourself to being an exorcist and they teach you how to die… 

“What does that say about the SAIB?” 

The man let out a deep chuckle, all the while holding onto the boy’s hands, preventing the boy from breaking his prayer beads. 

The boy’s breathing became painful, trying to muster the strength to rip the prayer beads apart. His vision started to become blurry. 

“Did you know? This ritual of an exorcist breaking prayer beads before they die didn’t exist until around 1000 years ago… And it didn’t become successful until a couple of centuries later… 

“Still, it is a remarkable feat and a testament to the powers of Spiritual Reinforcement…”

The man began prying the boy’s fingers off the prayer beads.

“To think that simply believing and making enough people believe in the effects of a ritual would enable that ritual to be effective, to the extent that it can even control the effects of death itself…” 

The man smiled as he took the prayer beads away from the boy, who was at this point too weak to resist. 

“Wouldn’t you say so?” The man smirked.

In Class...

Mark raised his hand. 

“Spiritual Reinforcement…What is that?” Mark asked.

“Well, it's one of the core foundations of spiritual energy. As you know, spiritual energy comes from a person’s thoughts, emotions, memories and beliefs, these are what are said to constitute a person’s spirit. 

“These thoughts and emotions that carry spiritual energy with them can gather and manifest into a spirit. Similarly, we can use spiritual energy to create a cause and effect cycle.” 

Shen paused and took out his prayer beads, showing them to the class.

“Let’s take prayer beads as an example, at first, it simply didn’t work well. Not enough people believed that it would. But we kept practising it. And occasionally we would get positive results. When people see the positive results we start to think, maybe this works. 

“When enough individuals with spiritual energy carry this belief, the spiritual energy in their thoughts and beliefs start to reinforce the effect, the power behind the belief starts to make this ritual work more frequently. Eventually, it is now recognised that this ritual will work and thus it does. 

“Similar to how sailors believe that whistling while sailing brings a storm, and enough reports of such incidents occur to the extent that sailors now consider it taboo to whistle during a sail. Simply thinking and believing is enough to make an effect come true. That idea is Spiritual Reinforcement.” 

Shen paused once more to let the class digest what he had said. 

“Of course, there are certain limits… Take this for example.” Khan said as he pulled out a spoon. 

“Normally, without any spiritual energy,  I won’t be able to bend this spoon,” Khan mentioned as he attempted to bend the metal spoon using physical strength.

“But… if I simply believe that my spiritual energy can enable me to do so…” Khan said as he now bent the spoon with ease. 

“My spiritual energy carries my belief that I will bend this spoon, and thus makes it possible. It also helps that some of you believe in my abilities as well, contributing your own spiritual energy to reinforce the effect.” Khan explained. 

“But the limit is demonstrated when you introduce doubt. If I said I could make this spoon defy gravity with just my spiritual energy, you might not believe it, because you are more familiar with gravity as a concept than a floating spoon.” Khan said as he dropped the spoon.

“Even if I believe it with all my might and send spiritual energy filled with my beliefs to make it float, the doubt and disbelief make it harder for me to accomplish this feat.” Khan continued as the spoon landed on the floor.

“But… If I use my abilities to enable the spoon to float,” Khan picked the spoon up and dropped it again, this time, the spoon dropped for a bit before reappearing at its initial position. Khan focused and the distance the spoon fell decreased until it appeared as if it was floating in a single space. 

“I used my ability to manipulate the space such that the spoon appears to be floating, but in reality, I'm just making it fall and reappear back to its original space. This takes a bit of focus, but with spiritual reinforcement, as more of you come to believe that I can make a spoon float, it becomes increasingly easier for me”

“Now, I just have to send minimal spiritual energy to the spoon, and it floats for real, defying gravity. I don’t even have to concentrate anymore, because your belief reinforces this effect more than my ability does.” Khan said as he pushed the spoon forward, causing it to drift as if it was in outer space. 

“Of course, this is only feasible if I can make you believe me. Now, if I ask Mark to do the same, he wouldn’t be able to pull it off.” Khan smiled as he made the spoon float towards Mark. Mark grabbed it and attempted to make it float, but the spoon came crashing down.

“This is one reason why the ritual of breaking prayer beads took so many exorcists and years to become effective, the concept of having any control over death or preventing the natural congregation of an exorcist's leftover spiritual energy was hard to grasp,” Shen explained. 

“Then… What about all those exorcists that didn’t break the prayer beads? What happened to them?” Mai asked.

“Well, because of the nature of their work and how they are killed, exorcists often feel strong emotions before death. And well, exorcists have strong spiritual energy already, as a result, before the ritual was invented, a major problem for exorcists back then were the spirits of dead exorcists. A great number of them became vengeful spirits. And many still exist to this day…” Shen said with a grave tone in his voice.

The man in the trench coat pocketed the boy’s prayer beads. 

“Ahh, yes… I can sense it in you. The fear, the anger, the regret. The feelings of an exorcist in their final moments. I know it all too well…” The man took out a knife from his pocket as he carved an inscription on the young exorcist’s arms. 

The boy flinched and struggled but to no avail. Once the man was done carving the inscription into the boy’s arms, the man searched through the boy’s uniform and pulled out a SAIB identity card. 

“Ahh, so your name’s Ryu of batch 3021… The fateful batch… I recall the Nan Ching District Massacre fondly…” The man grinned as he tossed the identity card onto Ryu's body. 

Upon hearing the mention of the Nan Ching District Massacre, Ryu’s eyes lit up. A wave of anger filled him. 

“Oh? You’ve still got some fight left in you huh…” The man spoke as he sensed a spike in spiritual energy. 

“My Spirit Contract allows me to control magnetic objects…” Ryu spoke, bearing the pain in his abdomen.

“Ohh? Revealing your ability now? I see, you think Spiritual Reinforcement is going to help you? It’s futile… I know you’ve used up all your magnetic bullets earlier… And I believe you don’t have the energy to manipulate any of the magnetic metals nearby… ” The man spoke, amusement in his voice. 

The only magnetic metals nearby were the metal pipings and large air-conditioning units from the surrounding buildings. All of which required some strength to manipulate. 

“I control magnetic objects using magnetism… You see… magnetic fields come from electrons… in magnetic objects, the electrons move in a way that causes these magnetic fields to add up and give the object their magnetic property… I use magnetism by manipulating electrons. Which means any object with an electron… I can make it magnetic…” Ryu said as he raised his hands. 

Every inch his hands were raised hurt like hell. He could see it, his blood had formed a significant puddle beneath him, reaching the shoes of the man in front of him. He needed to pull this off before he died.

Ryu focused on the prayer beads in the man’s suit pocket. He could feel the ‘spin’ of the electrons of the prayer beads. He then focused on the materials and the air surrounding the prayer beads.

He had practised this multiple times with Khan, managing the magnetic fields of surrounding objects to give the appearance that he could control magnetic objects. In reality, he was simply manipulating the magnetic fields of the surrounding matter. Spiritual Reinforcement would eventually do the rest and make it easier.

But now, he was going to manipulate a non-magnetic object… a concept harder to understand. But he only needed for it to budge slightly, some proof would cause Spiritual Reinforcement to kick in. 

The prayer beads started moving, eventually peeking out of the pocket.

“Oh? You really can do that?” The man uttered, a hint of surprise in his voice. The prayer beads moved out of his pocket smoothly, the speed and finesse of control Ryu had increased as he felt the spiritual energy from the man’s belief reinforce his ability. 

But the man had quick reflexes, he grabbed onto the prayer beads in mid-air before they could get any closer to Ryu. It didn’t matter to Ryu… he just needed to break it. Ryu focused on the electrons inside the rope holding the beads together. If he managed to make the rope repel itself, he could snap it. 

The man could feel it, the rope was about to snap. 

“Impressive that you’d think of this…but it’s useless…”

The man used both hands to grab the prayer beads, stepping forward towards Ryu. The man lifted his leg and stepped firmly onto Ryu’s leg, applying pressure till he heard a loud crack beneath his leather shoe. 

“Arggghh!!!” Ryu winced and yelled out in pain, losing control of the prayer beads. 

The man chuckled at Ryu’s reaction. Pushing his feet into Ryu’s shin as he screamed in agony. 

“Look at you… so weak and pathetic… this is what exorcists have become?” The condescension in the man’s voice was clear and sharp. 

Ryu’s hands, slumped back to his sides, fingers dipping into the puddle of blood beneath him. He was starting to lose consciousness. 

“In order… to…make magnetic fields stronger… I have to increase… the number of electrons, flowing… this means…” Ryu struggled to speak.

“You’re still talking?” 

“Technically… if I can manipulate electrons and the way they move… I can conduct… electricity!” Ryu planted his palms into the puddle of blood below him. The man was standing above the same puddle, his leather shoes soaked in his blood. 

Ryu had never attempted conducting electricity before, but with Spiritual Reinforcement, he reckoned it might work.

“[Magnetic Charge!]” Ryu chanted as he felt a surge of spiritual energy, this was it. 

Everything he had was going into this attack. 

Ryu could feel the movement of electrons in the blood.

The man before him screamed in pain as current surged through his body. 

“YEAARRGGHH!!” The man bellowed, smoke appearing from his shoes and trench coat, his body tightened up. 

Ryu continued to increase his output, spiritual energy draining as he did so. 

“ENOUGH!” The man’s voice boomed, eyes starting to glow purple. He turned his head to look directly into Ryu’s eyes. Ryu’s ability started to lose power.

“I see you still don’t understand… I’ll show you then… what it means to fear death… what it means to fear me!” the man stepped towards Ryu, positioning himself over his body.  The man grabbed onto Ryu’s face violently and peered into his eyes. 

Ryu could feel the spiritual energy, a malicious sort of feeling he had never felt before. As he made eye contact with the man, he suddenly felt as if he had been punched in the gut. His eyes were forced wide open, staring into the deranged eyes of the man standing above him. He couldn’t close his eyelids even if he wanted to.

The man opened his mouth and chanted: “I’ll let you have a taste of my ability…[The Crooked Shadows of Unclear Conscience]” 

Ryu’s body started to spasm as he felt his mind being overwhelmed by an unknown force. 

“Shen, are you serious? We won’t graduate from being trainees… until we’ve exorcised 108 unique spirits?” Mai asked Shen, her face slumped on her hands, which were holding her head up. She was trying her best to be engaged in the lesson.

Mai’s uniform fit her style. A white button-up shirt, ribbon tie and a black skirt were the normal attire for the girls. However, Mai had made some adjustments to the skirt, showing slightly more of her legs, her blazer also seemed to be made of a thinner material, and was also larger than the overall outfit, extending slightly past her shortened skirt. It looked like an oversized cardigan. The black boots she had on only served to complete her style. It seemed she had put in some custom requests beforehand.

“It’s Shen-sensei by the way… and yes… one for every prayer bead… most trainees take two years to complete that task.” Shen spoke, slightly annoyed at how Mai was addressing him. 

“Can you do it within one year?” Hannah asked, raising her hand.

Hannah’s attire consisted of the usual white shirt and black skirt but she also had stockings. Her blazer was more like a comfy cargo jacket with pockets on the inside and outside, presumably to store her drawing materials. Unlike, Mai, her shirt didn’t have a ribbon tie.

“It’s rare… but possible, I happen to have done it in less than a year... But even if you did, you’d still need to do one more year of pupillage under a professional exorcist. You’ll be coming back for lessons of course, but they’ll be more specific to you and your way of exorcism.” Shen answered, smiling at his not so subtle brag. 

Mark stared at Hannah, he could see the gears turning in her head. Almost as if she was calculating how she could wrap up her training years as fast as possible. 

Vince was about to ask a question but was interrupted by a knock on the door. 

The door opened and Charles stood on the other side. He seemed older than usual. His grey hair, usually neat and parted, was slightly ruffled from running. 

“I’m terribly sorry for interrupting your lesson, sir…" Charles spoke slowly, pausing as if to contemplate his next set of words.

"...But we’ve detected a surge in spiritual energy in two key locations in the Nan Ching District Area… We’ve sent some of our Barrier Agents to the scene, but at one sight we discovered a potential Lower Demon Level Spirit. And at the other site…” Charles paused… his eyes scanned the room, paying attention to the fact that there were trainees in the room. He also noticed the anxiety and slight annoyance seeping through Shen's face.

“What is it, Charles… What happened at this other site?” Shen was already on edge having heard the name of the district infamous within exorcist circles. 

“We found the body of one of our own… Ryu Hirugami of Batch 3021, was pronounced dead at the scene… “ The moment Charles broke the news, a dead silence befell the class. Khan furrowed his brow while Shen’s face scrunched up in a mixture of anger and shock.