The ward is awfully quiet.
Xin Linhua stands his ground against the director, making his reluctance known.
"Xin Linhua." The director breaks the stand off "Do you know the consequences of your actions?"
"What do you mean?" Xin Linhua frowns "I’m just a defect with no wavelength. No Sentinel wants to be tied down by me, I practically forced my Sentinel into accepting the pairing and now because of some accident, the institute is going to blame me? They’re the ones who sent four D-ranks to deal with two rifts meant for C-ranks."
The place goes quiet again. Director Chen holds back his anger.
"Head doctor." He turns to one of the medics "Get him a ra?ar."
"Yes sir."
The doctor rummages through a drawer, pulling out a small box. He hands it over to the director.
"The institute will have you come in tomorrow morning for a test." He passes the box to Xin Linhua "Wear this from now on."
Xin Linhua takes the box. As wary as he is, he still nods. As the director gives a dismissal wave, he walks out of the medical wing. It’s nightfall already.
All the way back to his room, his head is occupied by different thoughts. He doesn’t even know how he made it back to his room.
"Watch where you’re going."
That cold, annoyed and familiar voice jolts him back to life. He lifts his gaze.
"Yaras?."
"Don’t call me that." Rong Yizhan picks up his fallen towel.
Without thinking, Xin Linhua moves and grabs his wrist. Rong Yizhan jerks back, but Xin Linhua holds on.
"Do you really want to die that bad–"
His words cut off. He stares down at where their bodies connect, the hazy blue phenomenon reflecting in his eyes.
"Xin Linhua..." He yanks his hand back "Who exactly do you think you are–"
"I don’t want to guide anyone." Xin Linhua clenches his fist "Today. I found out that I can actually guide not just you, but others as well and I don’t have any control over my ability to do so. Director Chen reprimanded me for refusing to guide a Sentinel."
"You’re my Sentinel, you asshole." Xin Linhua stares straight at him "Why should I guide someone else? I have an unstable ticking time bomb like you on my hand, I thought I’d be useless and won’t be able to stabilize your wavelength. Now I discover that I can, but those bastards are getting involved!"
Xin Linhua’s gaze darts around the room. He’s anxious. He’s panicking. His brain is turning and trying to think of something.
"They’ll do two things." He continues "I did leave their Sentinels to die even though I can guide them. They’ll either make me suffer for my actions or make me a labrat. A guide that can guide more than one Sentinel...Ah!"
Xin Linhua fumbles with the box in his hand. He tears it apart and takes out the small object within it.
Golden, thin, like a wrist band with small implanted buttons on it. He slips it on.
"There." He raises his wrist "Until I find out how to control my guiding abilities, I won’t forcefully guide you."
Rong Yizhan stares at the band, then at Xin Linhua who’s wearing it. He turns, walks to his bedroom door, walks in and slams it shut behind him.
"Ah..." Xin Linhua exhales "Hollow...you can’t let them take you to a lab. Never."
He collapses onto the sofa in the living room, his hands covering his face.
He should have been a Sentinel, at least he’d have the power to protect himself. A guide... can’t do much. Only a guide who’s truly compatible with his Sentinel will be able to use a fraction of his Sentinel’s abilities.
He turns towards Rong Yizhan’s bedroom door.
Right now, he and Rong Yizhan are far from compatible– the man hates him with every single drop of blood in his body. He doesn’t want to see Xin Linhua. It’d have been easy to break him but that was before he found out he could guide Sentinels. Now with his abilities out of control, Rong Yizhan will avoid him like a plague.
"Avoid me..." He turns to stare at the ceiling "Ah...Yaras?, I need your reputation to get out of this fix."
All through the night, with both his body and mind exhausted beyond words, Xin Linhua falls asleep on the sofa with great difficulty.
When he wakes up the next morning, the room is empty. Rong Yizhan is nowhere in sight.
Xin Linhua checks his schedule. No class today. Nothing else needs to be done. Praise the biased heavens.
Thus, he brings up the ra?ar’s interface. A light blue holographic screen hovers before him with words and icons on it.
"How does someone even use these things?" He holds his head, scrolling through the words "There. A...gps?"
Apparently, the moment he had slipped the band on the night before, it had read Xin Linhua’s vitals and downloaded his information. It even connected itself to Rong Yizhan’s ra?ar.
"Wait...why is it showing sixteen different dots?" Xin Linhua’s eyes widen "Shit! He has sixteen!? He’s supposed to be harmless."
Xin Linhua closes the interface and stretches his tired limbs.
"As I thought...he’s a lone wolf." Xin Linhua shakes his head.
He leans against the entrance hall, watching the Sentinels pair up with each other for combat and ability testing.
The room seems to be everything proof, cause no matter what the Sentinels throw at it, the walls remain intact and nothing gets burnt or freezes over.
Rong Yizhan doesn’t indulge in any of that. Instead, he’s standing to one side, hand wraps around his hands.
"What– is he going to fight someone?" Xin Linhua snickers.
Lo and behold, a Sentinel walks towards Rong Yizhan. He exchanges a few words with the man who just nods along with that permanent distant expression on his face.
"Wait, he’s actually going to fight?" Xin Linhua unfolds his hands and straightens up.
The room clears out pretty fast. All Sentinels walk to the side of the room, leaving the ground to Rong Yizhan and his sparring partner.
"This is crazy." Xin Linhua hears someone comment.
"I heard the institute suggested this new form of training for him."
"What’s the point? He has no abilities and he’s a defect."
"I know, right?"
The Sentinels turn. The last person to drop a comment had been Xin Linhua. He gives them a harmless smile.
"You’re...the other def– I mean, Xin Linhua." One of them points his finger.
"Rude." Xin Linhua swats the finger away "And next time you want to insult my Sentinel, think about the things my brothers can do to you."
That shut them up real quick. Xin Linhua might be a weakling with no guiding abilities and even weaker self esteem, but his brothers are not.
"What are you looking at me for?" He raises an eyebrow "Watch the fight instead."
The Sentinels nod repeatedly and obey. Xin Linhua turns back to the match.
First, the person he’s up against is a C-Rank and a Geomancer. Rong Yizhan is none of that. He’s blind folded, outnumbered and overpowered.
"Rong Yizhan...just what exactly are you planning?"