“The princess has got some balls on her, doesn’t she?”

Julian commented. I found it almost amusing that no one had noticed what was going on even though it was as obvious as day.

“Let’s go.”

I suggested, beginning my own march towards the edge.

“Very well.”

He agreed to me almost instantly and set off. The others watched us slowly, but they would soon follow after we walked through. When we crossed over the edge, it felt like we swam through a thin film of heavy water. I had to hold my breath for that moment, since barriers of this kind weren’t normal.

On the other side, I saw a large metallic gate, at least fifty meters tall, with a wall that stretched as far as the eye could see. At the bottom of the gate, there were four men in military uniform, with guns in their hands. A woman in a lab coat just like Professor Wang stood in between these four men, reading through a tablet.

Professor Wang and the rich girl were already on their way to her side, almost as if they didn’t care about the other students. No. I couldn’t say almost as if. I wasn’t sure about Professor Wang, but Miss Wallace clearly couldn’t care about them. She looked like the type of person to prioritize her self needs over others.

Was she a selfish person? By all means, she was. Not like there was anything wrong with being selfish. That was perfectly normal for a person. Julian to my side whistled, then grinned widely.

“Speak about large. How big do you think this place is?”

I couldn’t tell if he was being honest or he was fooling about.

“An island?”

I decided to answer either way, not caring for what his mood was.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go up front.”

We both marched towards the gate where the soldiers stood. Upon getting close, one of the soldiers stretched a hand towards us for us to pause. The soldiers were thick tall and robust. He took out a tablet to me.

“Put your right palm on it.”

Following his orders, I put my palm on the tablet for it to get scanned. After the scanning, I was directed to where Professor Wang and Miss Wallace stood.

“Mr. Cid.”

The woman called my name, her voice was being altered. She was a young woman in her mid-twenties. She wore a face mask, covering the bottom part of her face, but her emerald green eyes stared at me coldly. I noticed that her hands were gloved and in her black hair there was a golden streak.

“Yes?”

I tried to confirm. She however glared at me. I was starting to get the feeling that I was naturally unliked.

“Raise your P.A.”

I rose my wrist to her. She tapped a bit on her tablet, then there was a sound.

BEEP! BEEP!

-Connection formed-

The P.A. stated.

“Interesting.”

She muttered unconsciously. Now I wanted to see what she was seeing.

“What?”

“Move to the others.”

Ignoring me, she told me to move on. Realising that I wouldn’t get the response I wanted, I decided to simply obey her.

“Mr. Vans.”

She called Julius’ name.

“Yes, beautiful.”

He winked at her.

Well, she had black hair, meaning she was probably the type he wanted to slay as he put it. But then again, would the streak of golden in her hair be enough to change his mind? Maybe he wouldn’t try anything stupid since she wasn’t a teacher.

“Raise your P.A.”

She gave a similar order.

“Anything for you.”

He puckered his lips and lifted his left hand, striking a pose that would be considered embarrassing. The woman performed the exact same procedure as earlier, and within seconds, she sent him to our side.

“Smooth.”

I mocked his attempts. Cockily, he brushed the bangs of his head up.

“Indeed. She’s clearly fallen for me. I always do appreciate the older ones.”

“Um… sure.”

I was starting to believe that he was deluded. We waited for a few minutes before other students managed to walk through the barrier surrounding the school. As soon as they popped up, Professor Wang looked at his watch.

“Hmm, this group is quite impressive.”

He muttered. Apparently, that statement was curious enough to get the rich girl interested.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, um. It’s a sort of test.”

“Professor Wang!”

The woman barked, trying to silence him. A wry smile formed on his face.

“Come on, they already passed.”

She sighed in defeat, clearly not willing to try to argue with this man.

“Does that mean the barrier out there was supposed to scare us away?”

Julian asked.

“Barrier, huh? I guess that’s one way to call it.”

“One way to call it?”

“Yes. It’s more of a teleportation ring. See.”

He pointed in a direction and over there I could see a bridge. That was the bridge we were on just a few moments ago. We had been moved away from that location in mere moments. In other words, we had been teleported. Now I was curious as to whether it was a device powering this barrier or if it was an Esper that caused this effect.

“Anyway, we try to scare off most of you first. The barrier has the effect of scaring away those with weak wills.”

“Those with weak wills?”

I found myself asking. The professor tilted his head and smiled eerily.

“Yep. Weak wills. We only accept the strong here.”

“That’s enough, Professor Wang.”

The woman snapped. This time however, I could tell that she was not in the mood to let him continue further. Professor Wang straightened his neck then coughed to clear his throat. I could see a cold sweat forming on his cheek and I knew why. The woman had sent a really intense glare his way. I was happy I was not in his shoes.

“Well, that’s it for now. When all your mates gather up, we will head over.”

He put his hand in his pockets. A sigh escaped his lips as he stared out towards the ocean.

“Am I the only one sensing the sexual tension between those two?”

Asking both Miss Wallace and I, he wrapped his hands around our shoulders and brought us closer. He was taller than both of us, so he had to crouch down in order to be at the same level as us. However, in that moment, there was a sound of something being dislocated, before a thud resounded. Julian was on his back on the ground, wincing in pain.

“Oi, oi. You could have broken my back.”

He grunted. His right arm had been shifted out of place and he now had the appearance of an improperly formed skeleton.

“I warned you.”

She growled.

“Maybe you went a bit ove-“

Her glares were directed at me, making me shut up. I offered my hand to Julian and he accepted it. He shoved his arm back in place and laughed it off. That was by no means nothing to laugh off. Having a dislocated joint could be sometimes very painful.

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

I asked, pointing to his arm. He looked confused when I asked, as if he didn’t just dislocate his arm. After realizing what I meant he started laughing again.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not the worst thing I’ve been through.”

“Hmm? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t think too much about it. Anyway, your woman’s kinda scary.”

He pointed out. However, I was confused about one thing.

“My woman?”

“Yeah. Ella.”

“What do you mean by calling her “My woman”?”

I asked, still failing to understand his point.

“Huh? You have a crush on her, don’t you?”

“Where’d you get that idea?”

“It’s as obvious as day.”

“It’s sometimes hard to differentiate day from night these days.”

“It’s an expression. From a time when it was always sunny during the day and dark when it was night.”

He explained it to me as such. It made me curious as to how the world was sixty years ago. For some reason, there weren’t any pictures of the time from before, even though there were definitely cameras. The generally given answer for this was that the First Impact, caused by the Devils destroyed almost any digital appliance around. Eventually, the Devils destroyed lots of stuff, including pictures. It was surprising humanity had made such a comeback.

 “Ok, round up, kids. We’re heading on in.”

Professor Wang called for us, the moment the woman was done with her mission. The woman played about with her tablet, then, the sound of gears clicking against each other resounded. There was steaming sound, followed by large amounts of steam being pumped into the atmosphere from the top. The gate’s doors shifted open slowly. There was a blinding light coming from withing it.

Julian wrapped his hand around my shoulders. Mockingly, he muttered something.

“We finally made it. We’re in Storm Academy.”

In his eyes, I saw the light of contempt as he said that. I wondered why he was even trying to look excited about it.