▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 19║▌║▌║█│▌

Itsuki and I walked in the the lab building, and it was amazing. Drazen was silent when he saw me, but gave me a look that could kill. Lainey contrarily just avoided all eye contact with me. Inside the building there were machines everywhere, and constant noises being made. On one side of the building you could see some capsules, and on the other side were rows of microscopes. Where we were there was two chairs set up by the door. A woman with dark blue hair and glasses came up and took Drazen and Itsuki further into the building to get their ideas for a uniform and told Lainey and I to wait in the seats. For the first couple of minutes there was a really awkward silence between us. I finally broke the silence with, "So you made it into Crystal High huh? Congratulations. How have you been doing?"

She still sat there in silence. The awkwardness was killing me. It was also pretty depressing how she has been ignoring for all this time. Maybe this is what it feels like to actually lose a friend. She still sat there not even looking or acknowledging my existence. I finally got the nerve up to say what I feel. I could feel something was wrong with her, so I just blurted out, "Well if you need to talk to anyone, anytime, I'll always be able to listen to you. I know that you may be embarrassed to talk to me now because I'm a sagaru and we are in a very prestigious school, but I promise I'll get stronger to the point where it isn't a problem to be a sagaru anymore. I think a friend should always be there for another friend, so if you are ever threatened or feel embarrassed by associating with me I understand. You said that you got bullied at your last school because of your dad being a sagaru, I wouldn't want that to happen to you here just because your associate with me. You have my number though, so if you ever need to talk to me just text me."

I turned to look at her, and I could see a little stream of tears on the side of her cheek mostly covered by her scarlett hair. She murmured a little, "Thank you." at this, but I couldn't help but feel there was something deeper behind this. Just then the woman walked back up with Itsuki and Drazen in tow. She gestured toward Lainey and I to go there. We walked through the masses of robotics and noise. We eventually were split off into two separate rooms. There was a man in the room with a clipboard and multiple weapons and fabrics on the table in front of him. He asked me, "Are you as ready as that last guy about your uniform design?"

I laughed a little bit and told him I have a few ideas. I said that I wanted a some loose fitting but firm black clothing, black combat boots with a knife holster attached, a cloak like Mr. Grey's but fireproof, a sword attacked to my back I can use, and dual pistols with them attached to my thighs. His eyes seemed to light up a little when I mentioned the pistols. He immediately reached down to a pistol on the table and held it up as he told me about them. Apparently they are battery charged, and you can charge them anywhere. They shoot out a laser that is as quiet as a mouse, and you can also set them to stun. They do however emanate a slight blue glow though. They also can shoot up to 50 rounds before you have to recharge them. These sounded like they could have way more uses than a normal gun, so I chose to have them over a regular pistol, though they are a bit bulkier. After that, he got my measurements and sent me on my way.

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We walked back through the arrangements of assorted machinery, and Itsuki and Drazen were sitting the seats wait for Lainey and I. Itsuki got up immediately and wanted to go. I could tell she felt really uncomfortable, so I obliged and walked toward the door. Drazen stood up fast though, and went in front of me and bumped me on his way out. Lainey followed after him keeping her head down. Something is definitely up here. On the way back to class I asked Itsuki if Drazen said anything to her. She said he asked her about me and started trash talking me. She didn't say anything back to him though because she was too shy too. She started to apologize for not defending me against him, but I quickly cut her off and stated calmly, "It's totally fine, really. I don't want you doing anything you don't feel comfortable with anyway, plus we just started talking like thirty minutes ago."

She looked back ahead and stated quietly that I wasn't as bad as he said though. I got curious after this and asked her why she decided to go to Crystal High out of all the other schools. She kept walking forward as she spoke shyly, "Well I come here from an orphanage. My parents abandoned me when I was kid. The orphanage I go to is pretty run down and there is always problems with it. I came here because I wanted to have the best chance to make it big as a protector and take care of the orphanage and kids. It's not as grand of a reason as getting filthy rich and famous, but I hope I can be able to do it. Sorry you probably think I dream to small."

I looked back at her and responded, "Hell no. Why should I? I think that it's pretty awesome and kind that that is what you want to do, and it's always nice to have goals big or small."

After this we entered back into the classroom and we both went back to our separate seats. I found out that Via and Zen paired up as partners. I thought about Zen's uniform idea, and kind of off handedly said that she should probably go with a more cooler blue along with white instead of all white. If she wore all white it would make her very visible during night operations, and it would make her the focus of a lot of attacks. She probably would still go with the all white to make more of a show for fans though. She probably would still get just as many fans with the cool blue though because of her beauty, but I don't think she values my opinion that much. Via asked if I had any ideas with hers, and I told her maybe she would want to get some explosives to go along with her uniform. She goes fast enough where no one be able to see her when she attaches the explosives, and that could come in handy. Thomas asked what about him, and I told him you never told me your uniform idea remember. Everyone went and got their uniform measurements pair by pair and eventually everyone got it done. Mr. Grey told everyone that as son as we get the uniforms in we will be training real battle situations so be prepared. I sat through school the rest of the day and the three days it takes to get the uniforms done in excitement. I can't wait to prove that I belong here.

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌