Right now there were 7 bodyguards around. All with black sunglasses. Two women and five men. One woman with short, red hair was standing near the annoying girl, ready to immadietly intervene the moment something happened. Red dark steel. Fury caged in hard, metal chains. She was assesing me.

She was the commander of others. Their teacher. I could see it in their Auras, they had her Echoes inside of them.

Three guards standing a little farther, between five and ten meters. Another three, in it the second woman, were securing the perimeter around the teacher building. Looking for anything suspicious.

All of them Talented. Caged Fury, I will call her, was the strongest. Her aura moved and surrounded me. A warning to not try anything stupid.

The bald bodyguard that went away was the weakest of them all, but in the same time, most blue. Flexible. Thats why they chose him as the spoke person.

They are not dangerous. What schould I do?

HA! RED ONE WOKE YOU UP A LITTLE! GOOD.

- Hello? I am talking to you? Are you ignoring me? (Annoying girl)

She walked up to me.

- Are you maybe deaf? Stop staring at me like an idiot? (Annoying girl)

Maybe if I ignore her enough she will just go away.

WHAT ABOUT THE RULES?

I will start to abide by them tomorrow. Right now I am too tired. And what about Evelyn. You didnt say anything then.

- Ah, whatever! Creeps everywhere. Guys lead me to somewhere with air coniditioning.

BECAUSE YOU ANSWERED HER.

Oh. Ok. What do I talk to her about.

I Looked at her.

Annoying girl. Isabella. Anger. Red unformed mask in shadow of loneliness. The hell.

- Why are you lonely? (Me)

- What? (Isabella)

She suddenly turned her face to me. Red mask growled.

In the same time Caged Fury tried to Look at me. Her aura spinned, catching Ether around me. To see, to feel. I ignored it.

So she Saw a little.

HELLO.

Caged Fury paled.

- My lady, please. We need to hurry and go to get you your room. (Caged Fury)

She grabbed Isabella's arm to try to get her away from me.

- Don't touch me! Lonely?! Me?! You are lonely! I have so many friends I throw parties for them! (Furious Isabella)

- My lady. Please. (Caged Fury)

Isabella heard something in Caged Fury's voice. Seriousness.

And ignored it.

- You don't know me at all! What are you, some kind od scammer?! What is your name! I will make sure you will be expelled from the Academy!

Caged Fury observed my reaction. My stone face full of boredom and aura darker than the cofee I need to not be so tired.

Woman, I will not hurt anybody. Not because I cannot, but because it's such a bother.

AND THE RULES.

- I am Angel. Or Angela as it seems. (Me)

- So Angel. If you don't want to be expelled now apologise! Wait, why Angela? (Isabella)

- I have a mistake in my ID. Officially, I am a woman. (Me)

- You are a woman? (Isabela)

She covered smile with her hand, still trying to be angry.

- And you think it's a good excuse to stare at me like that? (Isabella)

- It was a pretty big shock for me. (Me)

She snorted trying not to laugh. Is it funny?

A DUMB SITUATION LIKE THAT CAN BE FUNNY. OR SO I HEARD.

Maybe. Eva would laugh really hard.

- No, but seriously. You are a woman? You are not joking? What, your parents called you a wrong name? (Isabella)

- No, look. (Me)

I reached into my backpack and the bodyguards got visibly nervous. Caged Fury told them with her eyes to stand down.

I pulled out my ID and handed it to Isabella. She looked at it and laughed out loud.

- For real! No way... (Isabella)

She returned it with a little more serious face. Sadness. Pity. She saw my photo.

- So you are from North Edrin? Your Aurish is really good! (Isabella)

- Yeah. (Me)

- About this expulsion... I was just joking. Though, you schouldn't stare at people like that. I don't know how it is in North Edrin but here in Aura it's really rude. Or not answering when asked... Or sitting when someone standing is talking to you... Overall you are incredibly rude. Even if you don't know better you need to apologise! And stand up!

You could say she was kinda... cute? Like a child throwing a fit.

HER AURA IS SIMILAR TO NOT CORRUPTED YOUNGLINGS. THE HIDDEN ONES. NOT FORMED YET. UNCERTAIN. WOULD TASTE SO GOOD.

I stand up. At 1.8 meters I am taller than both Isabella and Caged Fury. She is more than head shorter than me while Caged lacks like a half of it. Isabella needs to look up now.

- Good! Now apologize! (Isabella)

- I am sorry. (Me)

I felt a wave of sadness. Some bad memories were tied to those words.

- What for are you apologising for? (Isabella)

She was having fun. Some silver sparks of happines jumped in her aura. A small feeling of superiority.

Yes. A child. More sad memories.

- For staring at you for too long. (Me)

- And? (Isabella)

- Not answering, when you talked to me. (Me)

- Aaaand? (Isabella)

- Not standing up? (Me)

- Good boy! (Isabella)

Caged Fury was watching our exchange with horror written on her face. Her green eyes were opened wide behind her sunglasses. Her aura big and threatening like a puffed up cat.

- Oh, the baldie is coming back. I wonder what did he buy. (Isabella)

The bald bodyguard came back running. His suit wet with sweat. He was holding a bottle of ice tea.

- Huff, huff, there is your drink my lady. (Baldie?)

Isabella looked at him and i saw some silver sparks of satisfaction and superiority. This time they were lined with blood red color of sadism. She took the bottle with a thoughtful face. She opened it and took a sip. She tasted it like a wine. And poured it out.

- Bleh, so disgusting. Run for something else. (Isabella)

Its good the Baldie's eyes were covered with sunglasses, because they flared up with blue light of ether reinforcment. His aura swelled, to supress Isabella's, but in the last moment he stopped himself.

- Yes, my lady. Do you maybe have some advice in beverage preverence? (Baldie)

Said Baldie through teeth of a wide smile.

- Maybe something not sweet. Hurry up, you don't want to lose your bonus.(Isabella in high voice)

- Of course my lady. On it. (Baldie)

Then Baldie looked at me and opened his eyes wide. Ether Reinforcement in eyes allows to see Auras and Ether. I know what he saw. There was a hole. In place where my aura schould be there was a hole. All Ether around was going in and nothing was going out. Like an event horizon of black hole that for some reason didn't suck in everything around. An anomaly.

Baldie glanced at Caged Fury, and their auras sparked touching each other, exchanging information. He scanned the area around us. He threw the last look to Caged Fury and went away, running.

- Well, if you are actually willing to listen, unlike all those idiots, I think I can allow you to be my friend. Be grateful! Not many people can say they are friends of Isabella Awanet! (Isabella)

A friend. I dont't want to. I hate it. I hate it so much.

- I refuse. (Me)

- What? Why? (Isabella)

- Because if were are my friend I will have to protect you. (Me)

- Protect me? Ha, ha silly! I am Isabella Awanet! I will protect you!(Isabella)

Right. A bunch of relatively powerful Talented bodyguards show how much you don't need protection.

And something will happen.

Something always happen.

I am overhelmed by a wave of exhaustion.

- I am leaving. (Me)

I started walking away. A bed. I was looking for a bed.

IF SHE ANNOYS YOU TOO MUCH, CAN I EAT HER?

No.

- Hey, wait! (Isabella).

I ignored her.

- You will be my friend even if you don't want to! I, Isabella Awanet, always get what I want!

SHE IS STRANGE.

***

Baldie, whose name was actually Nicholas Brown, was running towards the school cafeteria and talking to his colleague Matt, information agent, through the comms in his ear.

- Check a student named Angela Hope, he is a first year in Artorias Academy. (Baldie/Nicholas)

- Sure, give me a second... He? But he's registered as a female? Are you talking about the one talking to the Chick right now? (Matt)

- Yeah. Bureaucracy error. What do you have? (Baldie/Nicholas)

- He's from North Edrin... 16 years old... Albert Piercha is his guardian... He's a refugee... Passed Etheral Compability test. His results... Confidential. What do you want excatly? (Matt)

- Get those results, where and when did he come into Aurare, who is Albert Piercham, when was the last time he wet his bed. Everything! (Baldie/Nicholas)

- Okay. What did he do? (Matt)

- He's... not human. How the hell did he even get into the academy? (Baldie/Nicholas)

- What do you mean? I am not Talented, but is something wrong with his Aura? (Matt)

- Imagine meeting a human with abyssal void instead of face. (Baldie/Nicholas)

- Oh, like in that horror movie Faceless? (Matt)

- Right now is not time for jokes! What are they doing? (Baldie/Nicholas)

- Just talking. Oh, he left and the Chick is screaming about friendship. Lol. Crysis averted. (Matt)

- Can you motherfucker be serious... (Nicholas/Baldie)

- No. Because everything is under control. This guy, just like every student here, is under heavy observation. The moment something goes wrong FRTU comes crushing down like a steel hammer. I don't know why are we even here if not for serving the Chick. What have we been reduced into. Attendants to a rich teenager. Still if you really want to I can use our connections to get to know more about this guy. But it won't be cheap. And Capitan needs to agree. (Matt)

- I agree. Do it. (Caged Fury/Capitan)

- Yes sir! On it with more money! Oh I got something. Hmm. Apparently Angel Hope is a victim of the Dnietra Incident from two months ago.

- The one with human experimentation in North Edrin? (Nicholas/Baldie)

- Yes. Apparently he is one of the rescued children from the facility. Maybe his Aura is like that because of experiments? (Matt)

- No, there is something more. (Caged Fury/Capitan)

- Yes, Capitan. I just got the information about this "more" and we will need to pay for it. He's an S rank.