I was standing in the middle of the hallway, backpack on, with the look of someone who knew exactly what he was doing.
I've always been a specialist at going unnoticed. Extra number three: present enough to exist, irrelevant enough that nobody notices. In my head, I was the sarcastic guy from some niche anime who watches everything and is never the center of attention.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help when you're lost on the first day.
I was studying a crumpled piece of paper in my hand, a little map I'd drawn from the directions Troy gave me the night before. Mental note: never again trust my roommate's directions to draw a map.
How could it be so hard to find a classroom in a school?
I took a deep breath and stopped the first boy who walked by.
"Hi, good morning. I need to find a classroom and my internal GPS is under maintenance. I'm in the…" I checked the crumpled paper again. "Solaris Study Center?"
He stopped, blinked, blinked again, and kept staring at me as if I were an alien speaking Klingon. I decided to change my question.
"Um… do you know where the Rigel classroom is?"
"Dude, just use the AR in the ENApp."
He said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and walked off laughing with two other students. Great. Nailed it. I was already the weirdo on the first day of class.
I went back to wandering the hallways and ended up at the entrance of the building. Few students passed through there, since most of them were already in their classrooms. As for me, I kept looking from one side to the other with no idea where to go.
I was still weighing my options when a young redheaded teacher appeared in the hallway, waving at me as if she already knew exactly who I was. Huge glasses took up half her face, and her pen-marked hand gave away that she had probably been fighting a whiteboard minutes earlier.
"Hey, would you be Kael?"
Her voice was far too cheerful for someone working at that hour. She was coming toward me with a wide smile, accompanied by a girl my age, with blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail and yellow cat-eye glasses. The girl kept looking down, as if the floor were immensely more interesting than I was. Not that I disagreed.
"Good morning… Professor Elara?" I asked, and she answered with a nod while shaking my hand enthusiastically. Phew. I'm not lost anymore… for now. "I see you brought your squire. Should I have brought mine?"
The girl let out a little giggle. Her sense of humor seemed to be as broken as mine. The teacher rolled her eyes, put her hands on her hips, and said after a sigh and a small, friendly laugh:
"With that sense of humor, you're definitely the transfer student I talked to on the phone. I'm glad you're in such good spirits for your first day. We were supposed to meet at the coordination office, on the other side of campus, half an hour ago."
"We were?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"When you didn't show up, I figured you'd gone straight to class."
"I… think I got lost." I said it with a resigned smile, scratching the back of my neck.
The teacher looked at the paper in my hand and tilted her head to one side.
"Why aren't you using the AR in the ENS app?"
This again. Maybe it was time to ask. I opened my mouth, but she kept talking, now looking at the squire.
"Since you're, shall we say, jumping on a moving train, I came to introduce you to your class representative, Hanabi Evergreen."
The girl gave a small wave and crossed her arms as if hugging an invisible pillow.
"She's our brightest and most dedicated star, and she knows the whole campus. Hanabi, this is Kael Cordelisten. I'll introduce him to your class. It's called Orion. Pretty cool, right?" She threw a little punch in the air as she said the name of the Greek hero. "Hanabi is going to give you a tour of the institute during break and explain how a few things work around here. For now, come with me; I'll show you where your classroom is."
She set off walking ahead. Hanabi and I followed behind. I figured this was a good time to break the ice.
"Nice to meet you, Hanabi-san," I began.
"S-San? Because of the Japanese name?" She laughed lightly, kindly, and returned the greeting without looking at my face. "Nice to meet you, Kael… kun." She said it as if keeping the joke going took effort.
"So, um… you're the class representative, right? You must be pretty popular with your classmates."
"Actually…" the smile vanished from her face "the representative is chosen by the faculty. They have their own metrics, and popularity isn't one of them, otherwise there's no way I'd have been chosen."
At that moment I could have cut the awkwardness with a knife. I muttered a "sorry" half under my breath that left her face red. I couldn't think of anything else to say for the next few minutes.
When I need a joke the most…
The teacher led us to the door. A small group of students filed in silently as soon as she signaled.
"Good morning, Orion class!" She threw another cheerful little punch in the air. "You've already received the notification about the new star joining your constellation. Meet Kael Cordelisten."
Hanabi leaned against the door. Smart. I, idiot that I am, stayed next to the coordinator. She pulled me to the center of the room as if I were the prize of the day.
"Kael, how about introducing yourself?"
Before I could flee, the door opened. A Professor Paulo walked in, distracted, carrying a tablet and a Jurassic Park poster with feathered velociraptors, which looked like giant chickens.
"Hey, folks, this is one more class…" He froze when he saw the coordinator and tried to hide the poster with his body.
"Professor Paulo…" Elara massaged her forehead. "I believe velociraptors are not in the syllabus."
"Not yet," he smiled. "But I found a way to fit them in."
"Let's step outside. We need to talk about the biology syllabus… and about the length of your classes."
She left, dragging the professor along. Suddenly, I was alone in front of twenty pairs of eyes.
Perfect. Plan A (go unnoticed) destroyed.
Most of the students wore the same expression: secondhand embarrassment. I know it well.
I tried to come up with an escape plan, but all my ideas involved a smoke bomb and a "leap." Unfortunately, I was out of smoke bombs. I heard a sniffle from the left. I was afraid even my thoughts might be audible at that moment.
"Good morning… class?" Words started tumbling out uncontrolled, without my planning anything. "My name is Kael… I think you already know that. I was transferred and… you already know that too."
Nice. Doing great. If I add that today is a Monday, I complete the trifecta of useless information. Come on, say something useful.
"I hope we can be friends…" Seriously, brain? Is that all you can manage?
A girl sitting in the back rolled her eyes so hard she nearly launched them out the window, tossing her long hair, which immediately drew attention because of its purple streaks. Right after, she huffed. It seemed I had personally offended her with the idea of being my friend.
"Friends? Oh, get lost. At most, I could use you to clean my feet."
She stared at me with narrowed yellow eyes that seemed to threaten three generations of my family. Her loose, relaxed clothes contrasted sharply with the impeccable outfits of Hanabi and a few other students sitting closer to the front. It was a little hard to picture the two of them attending the same class. The little group around this girl laughed at the jab.
Okay. Plan A of going unnoticed had failed and now Plan B, improvising, had too. No good ideas. Smoke bombs kept popping up in my mind. How about trying a compliment?
"Nice to meet you… um… what's your name again? I like the purple streaks in your hair."
I realized immediately that the compliment and the question were not exactly well received by the girl. The group around her started looking at her, waiting for a response. She huffed again, uncrossing her arms and approaching with a deliberately slow step, like a predator sizing up prey, which was heavily emphasized by her yellow eyes, now truly intimidating.
She stepped closer, blocking the sun streaming through the window, which made her hair shine and gave her an even sharper, more unpredictable air. Her lips curled into a sarcastic smile, but there was a fleeting glint in her eyes — maybe irritation, maybe something more.
"What's your deal, newbie? You think you can talk to me on your first day? My name and my highlights are nothing you should be wasting space on in that empty head of yours. Go screw yourself."
Her gang of rebels looked like they'd just watched their favorite team score a goal.
"Next time…"
Miss Sunshine started in on a threat, but the teachers opened the door right then. She gave me one last menacing look and went back to her desk.
"Fine, Professor Paulo. You've convinced me." Professor Elara looked tired as she came back into the room. She glanced at the girl on her way to her desk, then at me. "Ah, Kael, looks like you've met Rey Lancaster. She's one of our most… spirited stars. Well, that's that. You can find an empty seat."
She turned to the other teacher.
"Now they're officially your problem. If every student introduction went like this, I'd have to retire early on hazard pay."
I sat at an empty desk in the back… on the opposite side from the rebel group. I took out a notebook and pens… while everyone else opened a screen… that rose out of their desks… and pulled out a keyboard… A few of them looked at me like I'd come from Mars. Or from the sticks. I already felt like Chico Bento.
"Well, people, let's begin class. Kael, my name is Paulo Pirula; I'm a biology professor and I advise students in the field of paleontology. I hope you enjoy my subject."
When the break came, I saw that Hanabi was finishing her notes. I stopped at the door to wait for her and saw Rey walk past me. She yawned so gracefully that she barely seemed like the same rebel who had threatened me in front of the whole class.
When she finished, Hanabi saw me waiting and smiled, then seemed to remember that I was made of flesh and blood. Her shoulders tensed for a second before she went back to looking at the floor. I hated the thought of taking away all the attention she was giving the floor, but I had a promise to collect on.
"Shall we, Hanabi-san? I think you owe me a tour of the campus."
She looked at me again before asking.
"San? You kept the suffix?"
I shrugged.
"Why not? I thought it was fun. Besides, it's your parents' fault for giving you an Eastern name."
She gave a genuine smile as she adjusted her glasses.
"Yes… Hanabi Evergreen. A Japanese first name doesn't go with the family's American surname at all. But my dad really loves Eastern culture. I don't know how he hasn't changed his own name to Seiya or Kenshin."
Her look at me was natural, and a sincere smile opened up as she mentioned her father. When she finished, she glanced at some girls passing on the other side of the hallway, and the smile withered into a small, resigned expression.
"So… shall we, Kael-kun? Let's start with the founder's statue. I think it's a good place to explain the philosophy of the ENS."
We arrived, then, at a statue in the center of the campus. It was an imposing bronze figure of an elegant man in a long, textured coat, with a fedora tilted over dark, enigmatic eyes. In one hand he held a slender cane topped with a stylized eagle, wings half spread, symbolizing, perhaps, vision or mystery? The base was carved with ancient inscriptions, and the air around it felt cooler, with leaves whispering in the wooded breeze. Beneath the statue were the name and some inscriptions:
"Estelai aeternaliér lucenti super umbras," I read the words with a very literal pronunciation. "I know I've read this before, but I don't know what it means."
"Stellae aeternaliter lucent super umbras."
Hanabi read it with perfect pronunciation, I think, not to show off, but in a friendly tone, as if she were happy to share what she knew.
""Stars that shine eternally above the shadows." That's our motto. Even though I don't like it much."
"Really? Why? Seems like a fitting motto for an educational institution."
"Well… it seems ambiguous to me, like it has a hidden double meaning… but that's not important. None of the teachers seem to agree with me on it."
She changed the subject quickly, waving one hand in the air as if to erase what she'd just said.
"Back to it. You must have noticed from what Professor Elara said that students are referred to as "stars," with the idea of showing that…"
"They only shine at night?"
"No, the idea…"
"That they're far away and unreachable?"
"Are you going to let me finish the explanation?"
She could barely stop laughing long enough to keep talking. It gave me a little room to maneuver.
"Back to it again. The method was devised by the late Dr. Enoch Voidwalker and focuses on seeking out exceptional minds: hardworking people, brilliant people, creative people, or even people with unique talents. Young people are invited from all over the country, as long as they're people the institute's board considers… interesting."
"Like my talent for comedy?"
"THE INSTITUTE," Hanabi went on, a little louder, drowning out the giggles, "promotes long-term contact with alumni for research, and the connections of both the institute and its alumni open doors into the job market for those who want them. So don't be surprised to see very… important people visiting the campus, or even inviting students for internships or scholarships."
"Interesting." I smiled, scratching the back of my neck. "So I'm a rookie star who only shines when someone flips the wrong switch?"
Hanabi laughed softly, the sparkle still in her eyes, but this time she didn't cut the topic short.
"Something like that. Well, where should we go now? Maybe the main building?"
The walk to the main building, on the west side of the institute, wasn't long at all. Apparently the "Stellar Plaza," where the statue stood, is the central point and is relatively close to everything on campus.
"This is the Equator Center for Studies." The girl pointed as we approached a large building with an enormous entrance. Students were going in and out constantly. "Usually we just call it the main building, or Equator."
We entered the building's lobby. Hanabi took out her phone and opened the ENS app, which I only vaguely knew. Soon she activated some feature, opening the camera and showing various points "behind the walls."
"Wait… is that the AR in the ENS app?" I asked, incredulous.
"Yes, Kael-kun! That's the Augmented Reality function of the ENApp," she answered, her eyes shining a little brighter behind her cat-eye glasses. "Ah… that explains why you were lost hours ago." She gave a little giggle that I ended up joining. "I understand not knowing about it, since it's your first day, but… be careful who you ask that kind of thing. For people here, the app is almost part of the body, and you might be seen as… different. I'll show you later how to find any building or room here. Without the AR it'll be impossible at first."
Hanabi turned back to the app and showed me the building's locations, swinging the phone toward each spot. Her commentary was rather eloquent, along the lines of "It's a cafeteria" or "This is the registrar's office," until we spotted the library materializing with a solid gold star on top. I looked at her, and there was a glow behind the cat-eye glasses.
"And what's the library like? It seems like a place you'd love."
I saw on the girl's face the Pandora's box I had opened. Her face lit up as if I had switched on a spotlight. She stopped in the middle of the lobby, eyes wide behind her cat-eye glasses.
"Ahh, it's huge, there are tables for group study, little rooms for studying alone, comfortable armchairs…"
For a few minutes she talked without stopping, her voice growing more and more excited, about the coffee machine, the classic literature sections, comics, manga, research collections, individual study rooms… after a while, she simply started walking. If I hadn't followed, I would have been left behind.
Before going into the library, she remembered that she needed to breathe. The pause made her realize how much she'd been chattering.
"Sorry, I… don't usually talk this much. Most people get… bothered. My only real friend here is the librarian — she lets me stay late, reading or studying on my own."
Maybe it was because I'd only just met her, but I didn't find her chattering that bad; I answered with an empathetic nod:
"Don't worry, Hanabi-san. I like books too."
The girl took that as a green light. Her eyes lit up behind her cat-eye glasses and she started talking again, even faster. I followed her, watching her give a wave to an older woman whose eyes lit up at the sight of her.
The smell of fresh-brewed coffee and old paper made me realize that… we had already walked into the library. I looked at the girl again, who was still firing off book titles as if they were good friends. She pulled volumes off the shelves one by one without even searching and set them in my arms on complete autopilot.
Suddenly I was holding a stack of books: The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter (seven volumes), The Wheel of Time, Narnia, The Dark Tower, Percy Jackson, Fullmetal Alchemist… when had we gotten to the manga? When she mentioned One Piece, a thought flashed through my head of a hundred-odd volumes of manga piling up in my arms.
The distraction that came with the thought had consequences. The girl was already carrying another collection of books, Stephen King, I think, and tried to add it to the stack in my arms without looking, which sent several of them tumbling to the floor with a dull thud in the silent library.
Hanabi froze for a second, her cheeks flushed and her glasses fogging slightly, but even so she didn't let go of the books she was still clutching to her chest.
"Oh, no..." she murmured, already crouching to gather the volumes scattered across the wooden floor. I dropped what was left of the stack in my arms on a nearby table and went to help.
That was when a familiar voice grumbled behind us, with the tone of someone who had seen this same movie a thousand times.
"Tsc, Hanabi… again?"
The purple streaks caught my eye immediately. Rey appeared as if she had materialized out of a bookshelf. She had the look of someone who would rather be anywhere else, and yet she knelt beside us and started picking up the nearest books. She made a point of not hiding her irritation, stacking the books harder than necessary.
"You know the old lady over there lets you do whatever you want, right?" she went on without even looking at us. "But here I am, walking right past you when Four Eyes decides to pull an avalanche of books. Guess who's going to take the heat if she shows up right now? Exactly! Me."
I was picking up a copy of It off the floor when I let my intrusive thoughts take over.
"I didn't know the Thorn Princess loved books so much."
Rey, at that moment, was splitting a pile of books in two to keep them from falling again. She looked at me and let out another huff. Or rolled her eyes again. Maybe both.
"Ahh! If I'd known this idiot would be here, I would've gone and banged my head against the east wing wall. It would've been more fun. Listen up, newbie…" Her voice came out low, controlled, and dangerous. I'm sure she had an excellent threat prepared, but she slowly let out the breath she'd been holding and spoke a little more quietly. "Just don't turn the quietest place on campus into an idiots' convention and I can keep pretending you don't exist. Got it?"
I raised my hands in surrender, but couldn't hold back a little smile. Rey huffed, smacked me in the chest with the last book in her hands, and walked off muttering something about "idiot nerds" and "too many books." But instead of leaving the library, she went to an armchair in the farthest corner, grabbed a slim book from a nearby shelf, and flopped into it with the grace of someone who doesn't want to admit she's staying.
Hanabi, still flushed, shot me an apologetic look mixed with an amusement she was trying to hide.
"Sorry… I get more excited than usual when I talk about books."
I smiled, adjusting the last stack on the table.
"No problem, Hanabi-san. It was kind of fun, actually."
She blinked, surprised, and the smile that opened on her face was small and genuine, the kind that arrives slowly and stays. From the corner of the library, Rey turned a page harder than necessary.
Hanabi finally came back to herself after that, lowering her face again with her usual shyness. The distant sound of pages turning echoed, as if the books were whispering secrets. That was when a middle-aged man with short gray hair and a calm air approached the table, carrying a stack of old volumes. He smiled faintly, adjusting the thin glasses on his nose.
"Do you plan to read all of these at once, or are you hiding them so no one else can find them?"
The professor said it in a soft, welcoming voice. I looked and saw the professor of Fantasy Literature — what school has classes in Fantasy Literature? — Aiden Crowe, the one who had welcomed me as a student two days ago, when I arrived.
"Ah, hello, Professor. I was planning to hide them, but there weren't supposed to be any witnesses. What do we do now? Do you take bribes?"
The professor gave a quick laugh and then greeted me directly.
"Hello… Kael, right? It's good to see you again. How's it going, sharing a room with Troy?"
"Excellent. He's been really nice to me. Speaking of which, he likes you a lot."
"I hope he really does. I've spent more than ten hours a week mentoring him." Right after that, he turned to the shy student on the other side of the table. "It's always a pleasure to see you, Hanabi. Just so you know, Kael, Hanabi is my best student. My only regret is not having her in my reading club."
The professor's words struck me as strange, but Hanabi responded with an extra helping of embarrassment at the compliment.
"Hello, Professor Aiden. I'm sorry, it didn't work out for me. But for you, Kael-kun, it could be a great opportunity to meet other people."
"Hanabi… a reader like you… why aren't you part of a reading club like this one?" My question was one hundred percent sincere, but I feared I'd touched a sore spot.
She stayed quiet for a while, looking down as if she'd dropped her ability to speak.
"I… I can't get along with a lot of people." Hanabi confided. "I get really excited, making maps and doing research on names, genealogies… Once, in a club I used to be in, I made a whole map of a fictional world, and everyone thought it was over the top… I left before they could ask me to. Mrs. Yamada is the only one who can put up with my excesses."
She seemed sincere in what she said, but something in her face made me wonder whether there was more she wasn't telling me.
"Hanabi…" the professor wanted to press the point. "It won't be like the other times. Most of the students don't mind your enthusiasm."
I looked at the girl, and her face showed she didn't believe those words.
I began to think about the reading group as a real possibility, but something echoed in my mind: "Don't give up on friendships. I'm sure you'll find someone out there as eccentric as you are." Before I knew it, I was suggesting something I didn't even know what it was or where it had come from.
"What if we made a slightly different kind of group? I mean, I like stories, and your research could be a huge help with something a little unconventional. Instead of a reading club, we could create our own story. A story with action, adventure, mystery… What do you think of the idea?"
The words came out on their own. The jumps gave me a pretty good idea of how to create a different reality, since that's what I did every time, and besides, it would help me get these weird dreams I've been having down on paper and, maybe, out of my head.
A rainbow of emotions swept across the girl's face: disbelief, incredulity, excitement, fear, joy, fear again.
Regret hit me so hard I wished I could hit Control + Z and undo my last action. Just as I opened my mouth to apologize, Hanabi's words cut me off:
"Create a story? Ours? Are you sure you want to do that with me? I mean… what an… incredible idea! We could make a fantasy world, how about D&D style? I can do all the research you want. Inventing names, places, maps… it's fantastic! A plot with historical wars, magical creatures…"
She kept murmuring ideas for a while, and I just stood there, jaw hanging at how readily the girl had accepted it all. Her eyes roamed as if searching for more inspiration and landed on the professor and me. Out of nowhere her shyness came rushing back, in full force now, with all the strength it had stored up over the past few minutes. So she grabbed a book from a nearby shelf and started flipping through it as if she had never seen a book in her life. It must have been very interesting, this Anatomy and Physiology of Mollusks.
"Ha, ha." Professor Aiden laughed heartily. "That really is a very good idea. Where did you get it from, Kael?"
Great. How do I answer without getting found out? For the next five seconds my mind churned, trying to come up with an excuse the sharp professor in front of me would accept... and then he forgot the question and kept talking.
"I think a little action will do your story some good. Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't strike me as the types who would write good fight scenes. I think I can solve that problem. Kael, since it was your idea, you're in charge of bringing the snacks. Make enough for three."
"Um... all right?" Had I just agreed? "Next Saturday morning? I think that's a good time."
"Yes." Hanabi agreed without taking her eyes off the book. She must really like mollusks. "The cafeteria in the campus's east wing is outdoors. It would be a good place for us to meet." She stretched out her left arm, pointing south. The professor moved her arm to the right direction.
"Ha! It's nice to deal with students who know what they want. I'll register you as an official ENS group. You should get a notification as soon as it's approved." He paused for a second to think. "You'll probably need to file a report every now and then, but the important thing is to have fun."
After saying that, the professor simply started to walk out, still talking to himself.
"What an interesting mind that boy has. Whoever heard of such a thing? Starting a group to write a fantasy story... That's new even by ENS standards."
The professor disappeared down the corridor, still muttering. Beside me, Hanabi had dropped the mollusk book on the table and was whispering D&D terms as if they were prayers: "protagonist mage... living grimoire... arcane map..." Her voice was low, almost a hum, but every word vibrated in the air like a spell.
I thought about saying something, but then a phrase slipped from her mouth, almost dreamy:
"...a mage in a white dress, with red flames dancing along the hem..."
Pain exploded in my temples like a bolt of hot lightning. The world tilted. I blinked once and suddenly Hanabi was no longer there, with her blonde ponytail and cat-eye glasses.
In her place stood an ethereal figure: a long, flowing white dress, living red flames licking at the hem as if the fabric were burning without being consumed. A black-covered grimoire floated beside her, its pages turning on their own, giving off an electric-blue glow. The smell of old parchment and sweet smoke flooded my nostrils. The air around her grew hot, almost suffocating.
I rubbed my eyes hard. The vision dissolved in a blink, leaving only the real Hanabi, flushed, clutching the mollusk book like a shield.
But the lingering heat still burned my skin. My heart beat unevenly, as if someone had driven an invisible blade into my chest.
As exciting as the idea of the group was, an icy fear spread through me.
Thinking too hard about creating a fantasy world is not the best of ideas... when you can actually create one.