That answer pushed him into silence for a moment, then he grumbled and walked away from me, calling out behind him, "We'll see." As I watched him go I wondered why he bothered so much; in the end everyone has a potential and they reach it before they pass fifty or sixty. So what if you reach it one year, two years, five years late?
In the other corner of the courtyard, students were still looking at their panels, some shouting with joy, some bowing their heads in disappointment. The scene reminded me of the previous period; it was as if we were all playing the same game, by the same rules, toward the same outcome. Some of us won, most of us lost, but the game itself never changed.
When the bell rang I picked up my things and dragged myself toward my first class, that is, an empty theory session. The first day of a period generally passed lightly; teachers gave us a bit of breathing room to digest the new rankings.
Walking down the corridor, I heard a few first-year students ahead of me talking excitedly — they were arguing about which teacher's class they wanted to take. Their being so eager struck me as odd; I didn't understand this excitement, since in the end they were going to pick a few different classes. Honestly, entertaining people is very easy these days. When I entered the classroom, Ms. Laura's desk was empty; in her place a young assistant teacher was handing out the period's course schedule. I ran my eye over the sheet in my hand — Modern History and Chi Theory, Advanced Combat, Anomaly Biology, Chi Control Theoretical, Mathematics, Anomaly Behaviors, and finally a new class I had never heard of called "Individual Development Counseling." Next to this last class was a small note: "Only for students in the top 10 rankings."
Curious, I turned the sheet over but there was no further detail. I asked the student next to me, a girl whose name I didn't remember: "Do you know what this 'Individual Development Counseling' is?"
The girl shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not in the top 10. But from what I've heard, a special counselor is assigned to each student, and they teach you how to use your potential more efficiently."
Interesting, I thought; after all, "didn't the System tell you everything?" But I didn't dwell on it. I saved the course schedule to my system and sat down at my desk.
The assistant teacher said that Ms. Laura was on the administrative floor today for staffing matters, and that we would have our actual class with her tomorrow morning. So the first hour of the 2nd period consisted almost entirely of introductions and explanation of the schedule; I sat at my desk and went back to the music in my earphones, wondering how the long period ahead of me would go.
The moment classes ended I stripped myself out of the school's suffocating air. Going home on weekdays wasn't forbidden for students; the only condition was making it to the first class the next morning, and the first day of the period was free in the afternoon anyway. I didn't live in the city center or inside the private walls, but twenty-two kilometers past the center, between the 3rd Wall and the 4th Wall. Even though passage between the walls was free, they said the closer you were to the center the safer you were. That was why the cheapest buildings were set up on the outermost edge of the city.
My city was called Solasgard; one of the nine great cities left in humanity's hands, and at the same time host to Neopolis Academy, one of the nine great academies. A total of one million people lived here, which made it the most crowded of the nine cities. There were people living outside the walls too, of course, but they weren't safe. They were a bit dangerous, to put it mildly.
Worried that my scholarship would be cut if I failed my classes, I got on the tram; I could go a certain part of the way by tram but I also had to walk a bit. As the skyscrapers and neon lights of the city center fell behind, the buildings got lower and the streets emptied out. I went to the outermost rim of the city, into the shadow of the enormous concrete Anomaly Barricades, to the 4th District.
The stairs of an old apartment building had rotted, and there had never been an elevator. In this small five-story building I had seen my neighbors a countable number of times. Small as it was, I had grown up in this home, I loved this home. I took out my key and opened the door. At the table sat a man in his fifties, gray creeping into his hair: Master Ren. Someone the public no longer knew at all, who had withdrawn into his own shell, who appeared in official records as a former guard; but who was perhaps one of the five hundred strongest Chi users on the continent.
"You're late, Kai," he said, without lifting his eyes from the blue holoprojection in front of him. The screen was full of biological tissue analyses.
"Hello to you too," I said with a bit of reproach. Messing with him annoyed me, but in some way it also did me good.
He threw me a blank look, then took a book from his library. Even though he lived in a bad home, he placed great value on reading; he would comb through books hundreds of years old and take pleasure in it. Whenever I saw him he was either reading or busy with some task. He also had the strange habit of helping people; sometimes I thought he'd gotten too carried away with the old legends.
"Where's Elisa, it's getting to evening?" he said.
"I saw her at the market, she'll be here soon. Make something tasty today — I asked her to buy meat. My scholarship just came in, it's on me, don't worry."
He grinned. "Look at this kid from yesterday, buying us meat. I bought dessert on my way home too; they called from the school, they said you came fourth. We'll eat something and celebrate."
He was a strange person but sometimes he made us happy. Then I thought about how, despite there being no blood tie between us, he had looked after us our whole lives and genuinely valued us; though even that alone was enough to make him strange.
"Hey, Master," I said afterward. "Why do you look after us? Why would a person want to look after two orphaned kids? The state gives us something already."
He looked at me and smiled. "When the time comes, you'll feel it too."
Feel it? I would have expected him to say you'll understand.
Right at that moment the lock on the door turned and my sister Elisa came in; in her hand was a bag from the market, and on her face there was a clear unhappiness. I wondered what had happened to her, but I didn't ask right away. I knew she wouldn't tell me directly. So I would ask at the table; with Master Ren's pressure I would knock her out, since she could never withstand Master Ren's pressure.
Elisa was my sister. She was one of the few people in this world I could get along with, along with Alex. She was at the fourth step of the first stage of Chi; though she wasn't considered as talented as me, she did everything she could. This evening I was going to practice with her.
Meanwhile the Master had prepared the meal and called out to us: "Come on, to the table, right now." Then we all moved to the table. He had truly prepared us a feast; the meats looked very juicy. For as long as I could remember, I had loved meat.
After I put the first bite in my mouth I looked at Elisa, and she looked at me; then I smiled at her slightly. Because she knew the meaning of that smile, she looked at me with feelings somewhere between fear, pleading, and anger — but it was already too late.
"Hey Elisa, why are you so unhappy?"
She looked at me as if she were going to kill me, then turned her eyes fearfully to Master Ren. Knowing she couldn't beat the Master, she explained without dragging it out: "A few kids at school opened their panels."
"How old are they?" Master Ren asked.
"Eighteen. They were in the class above us, they graduated, they came to visit."
"Don't worry, you're still seventeen," the Master said. "Besides, your brother will help too; you'll probably open the panel before entering Neopolis Academy, like your brother did."
Elisa smiled at these words of the Master's, then turned her gaze to me. I couldn't beat the Master either; I knew this was an order more than a statement. I did show her a few things now and then, but...
Anyway, so that there'd at least be some conversation at the table, and so I could convince Master Ren I was teaching her something, I asked: "Tell us, what stuck with you from the first lesson?"
Elisa looked at me, then began to explain seriously; she listed the five steps of Chi one after another: to feel, to control, to defend, to attack, and finally — the one that comes when the panel opens — to increase. She was telling it correctly, she had memorized it.
After the meal we practiced in the living room with wooden knives. Elisa threw herself at me with fierce ambition, tried to channel her Chi into the knife, but her energy was still irregular. I slid slightly to the side and touched her back, breaking her balance.
"Use your height," I said. "You're shorter than me, take advantage of speed and flexibility. Because I'm tall my reach is wide, but you can get inside my inner defense zone faster than I can. Use that."
She was out of breath but the glint in her eyes was full of drive. "We'll try again!"
"Friday evening," I said. "I have to get up early tomorrow."