I held a sheet of paper in my right hand. Printed on it were the following instructions:

Cadet 1128

Meet on the 20th floor to begin training. Your partner will be assigned to you very shortly.

This could have been verbal instructions. I think having it typed out and printed was just a complete waste of paper.

I folded the paper and placed it in my pants pocket. I made my way to the elevator, so I could start my training on the 20th floor.

I could have taken the stairs, but with my luck, I probably would have missed the floor completely.

After pushing the button for the elevator, I waited for the doors to open.

Standing in anticipation, I hummed a tune to myself.

A few moments later,

*Ding*

The elevator doors opened, and revealed a young woman, roughly my age, standing there.

I stepped into the elevator and stood on the far left of her.

The button for the 20th floor is already selected, she said, which means she must be a cadet as well.

She side-eyed me in a curious manner, while I did the same.

Her attire is somewhat gothic, with her chin-length, jet black hair and platinum blonde ends.

She wore a black crop top with black shorts, complete with fish net stockings and boots.

A black jacket was thrown over the entire outfit to complete the look.

My first thought isn't, "Wow, she sure is attractive. It is more along the lines of, doesn't she feel cold while wearing that here?

She must have noticed me observing her, because she turned her head towards me and said, "Don't tell me, you're one of those weird guys who stares at females all day long."

Huh? How did she reach that conclusion?

I side-eyed and replied, "I have no idea how you even formulated that idea in your brain."

The stranger observed me a bit closer and said, "White hair and mismatched eye colors. Well, aren't you a strange one?"

I squinted my eyes at her, "That's like the pot calling the kettle black, Miss Emo."

She was taken aback by my statement, "This is a fashion statement."

I sighed, "Right now, your fashion is stating that you're an Emo."

She glared at me and replied, "Rude people are one of the many things that I dislike."

I looked downwards at the metal flooring, "Well, I dislike people who tend to dislike me."

Alright. Why is this elevator taking so damn long to get to the 20th floor.

The rest of the ride was filled with silence, and shortly afterwards, the doors opened.

Both of us got off at the same time.

She once again glared at me in a harsh manner and said, "Hopefully, we don't see each other as often."

I placed my hands in my pocket and replied, "Right back at you."

The stranger walked on ahead of me while I followed a little distance behind her.

Even though we were technically going to the same place. I still didn't want her to think I was purposely walking closer to her.

As we approached the room that we were supposed to congregate in.

I spotted a male standing next to the door.

The male stopped the girl, then asked for her name.

"It's Aviorah Himeragi and I am a Relic."

Aviorah Himeragi, huh? So that's the name of the person being unnecessarily cheeky with me.

The man looked through his list and checked it off.

He raised his head as he noticed me approaching.

"What's your name?"

"It's Ayato Amaya, and I am a relic user."

As soon as I uttered those words, Aviorah turned her attention towards me.

The male checked my name off the list and introduced himself.

In a proud voice, he said "You may refer to me as Instructor Kida. Now go inside and have a seat."

So instructors don't wear the same uniform as investigators, I see.

He wore a cream dress shirt with the 'Umbella' logo over his heart and black soft pants.

Aviorah entered the room before me, and shortly after, I followed suit.

As you enter the room, the first thing you notice will be the seats, which are far off in the back. At the front of the room, there is a wooden stage with a podium.

The room is surprisingly spacious; it almost feels as large as a university lecture hall.

The majority of the seats were filled by potential investigators already.

I would say that 3/4 of them had serious looks on their faces. So I'm going to assume that they didn't come to play around.

After quickly scanning the room for an empty chair, after a few moments, I located one.

Briskly walking towards it, I finally arrived at my destination and exhaustedly dropped myself onto the chair.

There was an empty chair to the left of me as well.

I proceeded to close my eyes and appreciate the refreshing air conditioning. It wasn't too warm nor too cold.

In my moment of relaxation, I heard a rustling sound to the left of me.

I opened one of my eyes and saw Aviorah taking the empty seat next to mine.

Still, with one eye open, I said. "What happened to 'Hopefully we don't see each other as often as before?'" I am pretty sure this counts as often. "

She finally settled into the chair and replied, "Shut up. This is the only available seat closest to me."

I reclosed my other eye and kept silent.

So, back to enjoying the cool air.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment was cut short by Instructor Kida, who walked in.

In a loud voice, he said, "Alright cadets, this is the beginning of your training to become junior investigators. If I had to be honest, I would say half of you might not make the cut. We only accept people who prove to us that they can survive in a fight against the Witches."

I observed the group of cadets and everyone seemed confident enough that they would make the cut.

Instructor Kida continued, "At the end of this class, we will be assigning you partners based on your aura compatibility."

From what I read up on it so far, an aura is an extension of our inner self, in which we are able to use different forms of magic, enhanced physical attacks, and enhanced defensive techniques. We can also wield relics as long as both of our auras are 90% compatible.

Instructor Kida, who stood at the podium, began to confirm everything that I had just thought of.

"Auras take on different colors, most of them being either red, blue, green, orange or yellow. There are special cases when someone's aura can be another color apart from the ones I just listed."

I looked around and saw that everyone was writing the information down.

I started to panic because I didn't bring any pens or paper.

Alright. Time to do something which I hope I don't end up regretting.

I leant to the left of me and whispered to Aviorah, "Um, do you have any extra writing materials?"

She ignored me for a bit, then exhaled deeply.

"Did you seriously forget to bring any writing materials today?"

I'll be honest and say that it did cross my mind, but I brushed it off.

I nervously replied, "Noooo."

Aviorah slightly rolled her hazel-colored eyes and gave me some of her extra materials.

Unfortunately, the pen was bright pink with a unicorn head at the end of it.

"Uh, do you have anything less unicorn?"

She side-eyed me and replied, "It's either that or write with your finger nails."

"Ok, fine."

In a defeated manner, I began to jot down what the instructor said with my new unicorn pen.

I can tell, this is going to be a long training session.