A whole year had slipped before I knew it. Twelve months of preparing, studying, worrying and quietly waiting for this day. And now, the time had finally come, the bird had to leave the nest. It was decided that mom would take me to the institution, while Dad stayed behind with Claire. Before I left, Dad looked at me intently, the kind that said thousands of things he’d never put into words. Then, just when I thought he'd let me go without fuss, he pulled me into a sudden hug. “If you have a problem, call me,” he muttered.

  …Typical dad move.

  We left the house. Mom and I boarded the train, the super-fast Garuda. Zone 030 was exactly three hundred kilometers from zone 010. Back in my old world, even the Shinkansen would’ve needed at least an hour for that distance. But here? With hyperloop trains, it took under twenty minutes. Yeah, I couldn't even finish a single anime episode at that time. That’s how fast it was.

  With a blink of an eye, we were already standing in front of the academy gates. We headed straight to the registration center where an android handled the process. Efficient and cold, but fast. In no time, I had my ID in hand. The robotic porters collected my luggage and took it to my dorm, so that was one less thing to worry about.

  We had some spare time, so we walked around the campus. Compared to the campus from my past memories, the campus grounds didn’t look like what would be middle school for this age. Tall buildings rose in front of me. Its glass surface curved without seams, catching what little light broke through the clouds. Walkways hung between the towers, glowing faintly as if the light itself had been turned into a material.

  Overall, it was beyond regular school. Mom intently stared at things throughout the walk around campus. But, if this was a C rank school, it made me wonder how an A rank would be?

  After that, mom and I had some food in the community cafeteria.

  But then came the hard part.

  I thought, with memories of my adult life, that separation from family wouldn’t bother me. That I’d be mature enough not to get emotional. But my memories don’t overwrite feelings. They don’t change how your brain is wired.

  At the end of the day, I was still a twelve-year-old kid. And leaving my family behind…hurt more than I wanted to admit.

  Mom looked at me, probably realizing, then crouched down on her knees and pulled me into a tight thug. “You’ve been acting strange these days. I thought it was because you were becoming an adult and were worried about not meeting our expectations. And surely, you didn't get the best results. But Mama wants to tell you this: You did good.”

  The moment those worlds left her lips, something inside me loosened. My chest felt lighter. Even though my mind had been preoccupied with Kiyara Aryavane and my so-called grand plan, deep down I had also wanted to live up to my family’s expectations. My arms tightened around her and before I realized it, warm tears were sliding down my cheeks.

  “Oh boy, what a crybaby I’ve got here.” She teased, ruffling my hair. “Mamma will come visit you during summer break. So be good and do what you are supposed to do.”

  And then it was time. She turned away, each step carrying her further, until her figure blurred into the distance and finally disappeared. I stood there, wondering when I’d get to see her again.

  Well…I didn’t have to wonder for long. Later that evening, as I was unpacking in my dorm room, my transceiver bracelet buzzed. A Holographic call. From mom, of course. The moment I answered, her holographic projection filled the room, eyes darting everywhere as she launched straight into her usual motherly bickering. So much for separation.

  …

  The day ended quietly after that. Dinner was served directly to my room, though students could also eat in the dining hall. For tonight, I chose to stay in. Tomorrow would be the official first day of classes.

  I’d been placed in the Class 01-D, the worst class of the first year. But I’d just have to hang in there. For my plan. To get into the institute Spear of Aegis. After all, deep beyond the trash…sometimes diamonds are found.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  ────??────

  They say children are like water. They reflect the world around them. And meeting the kids in my class, I remembered just how ugly the reflection could be. “A classroom is just a smaller version of society” – I often heard. Hierarchy, discrimination, favoritism, competition, social conflict. All of it crammed into four walls.

  My class was no exception.

  From the hallway to the classroom door, I’d been in high spirits, practically dancing like a sparrow. But the second I stepped inside and felt their eyes land on me, I knew it wasn’t going to be roses and sunshine.

  Those eyes... They were the eyes of a wild dog measuring me, sizing me up the way, deciding whether to submit or to dominate. It was less “welcome to class” and more “Let’s see where you fit in the food chain.”

  Scary kids, seriously.

  Then, a girl my age broke the tension and walked straight up to me. Short pink hair, yellow eyes maybe contact lenses, and star-shaped earrings glinting on her ears. She wore the school uniform: crisp white jacket trimmed in red at the collar, cuffs and hem, with an emblem of goddess stitched over the heart. The girls wore dark skirts while the boys wore straight white trousers.

  Though she wore it in a flashy, loose and proud style, and nailed a certain impression down. In my head I screamed: a Gyaru!! So early in the plot?

  “Yahho~! I’m the class rep, y’know? Just pop your ID in here, kay, and it’ll like, assign your seat ‘n stuff☆”

  In here? Pop? — A real deal. If I was a normal guy, I probably wouldn’t understand anything she said. But due to being a true connoisseur in my past life and studying tons of anime and manga. I understood everything. What she meant was to place my ID in this device placed on the wall which was meant to assign our seats. Easy.

  “Uh...sure,” I muttered, playing the natural normie and doing as told.

  But one thing bothered me. A Gyaru as a class rep? What happened to the classic black haired, twin tail presidents? Truly, Sci-fi is terrifying.

  That aside, the moment I slotted my ID, the screen at the front of the room near the teacher podium lit up and projected all my info. My name, age, zone residency, parent's name, even HOBBIES?

  What the hell?! Ever heard of privacy, sci-fi people?!

  “Okay, first row, second to last seat,” she said, cutting right through my mental protests. And before I could even respond she had already moved on to a group that hung around the first bench of the first row.

  Is she really the president? That was way too gyaru delinquency.

  I marched towards my assigned seat, trying not to notice the whispers trailing behind me:

  “Tch…he’s from zone 010.”

  “Another one of those peasants, huh?”

  “He must be one of those nerds who crammed his way in.”

  “What a loser.”

  By the time I sat down, all my earlier excitement had evaporated.

  I realized why 1-D was the worst class. This was a class of…. delinquents.

  Talk about awful luck.

  ────??────

  Another fifteen minutes passed by. The whispers about me had finally died down because now they had someone else to whisper about. But I’d noticed one thing. From the moment I was assigned my seat, I watched as child after child placed their IDs. And there was a pattern, one too obvious to ignore.

  They were like six rows, and each row had six benches: a total of thirty-six seats. That meant, kids from higher zones like the gyaru class rep were all lined up neatly in front. She, of course, had the very first seat in the first row. And anyone from the lower zones like me, got shoved to the back.

  Not that I wanted to sit in the front, but…come on. That’s discrimination. Zone based seating arrangements. Like, Zone racism, seriously? Well, there was also the fact that I wasn’t at the bottom of the food chain. Since there were six people below me. So there’s that…

  Moving on, as once almost everyone was settled, the teacher walked in. She wore an office suit, hair tied neatly, her whole vibe screaming “sexy corporate lady”. Honestly? Not very realistic of you, Mr. author. But I will gobble it.

  She started her introduction, which I promptly tuned out. My mind drifted elsewhere – intently staring at her curves, lips and… I mean wandering over the state of my class, a zoo of delinquents and also what the heroines of the novel might be doing.

  Especially Kiyara Aryavane. A top elite like her was probably in some prestigious school, surrounded by geniuses and prodigies, having a talk over tea, while I was stuck in the back row, stewing with rejects. Would I even get the chance to be around her like I planned?

  And then…

  “We also have someone joining our class.,” the teacher said. “I hope you’ll treat her well. She’s a special person.”

  A special person? My brain instantly jumped to novels. Was this one of those wild transfer characters with mysterious underwater origins? The characters who come randomly out of shadow to help the protagonists.

  But when the door slid open and the student walked in, my entire body froze.

  The moment I saw her face, my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. I shot up from my seat and scramed:

  “Kiyara Aryavane is in our class?!”

  That was the first time I thought…maybe God really does exist.

  ────??────