A number of researchers gathered before a large glass wall, attentively watching the young girl on the other side. She couldn't be more than eight years old. She wore a simple pink dress befitting her youthful age and her brown hair was pulled up into two pigtails.
The girl had monitors strapped to her chest and temples. Wires led from her skin to various machines on the far wall. She was seated in a metal chair in front of a metal table. The only object on the metal table was a single apple. Beyond the faint mechanical sound of the monitors, the room was entirely silence.
The girl stared at the apple as she awaited instructions. Before long, a man's voice came over an intercom.
"Start: zero G."
The girl breathed out slightly as she squinted her eyes. Slowly, the apple began to rise from the table, floating effortlessly into the air above her head. The researchers on the other side of the glass began to take notes.
The girl dripped sweat as one of the monitors on the wall began to flash red. She finally couldn't withstand the strain anymore and relaxed her body, the apple falling onto the table with a bang.
"Zero G: 23 seconds."
There was a murmuring from the researchers. They quickly wrote on their clipboards and whispered between one another. There was a short interval of silence as the girl gathered herself.
Then the voice came again. "Start: reversal."
The girl wiped the sweat from her forehead and stared at the slightly bruised apple once more. After exhaling strongly, the apple began to fall up towards the ceiling, landing with a bang. The researchers all murmured even louder this time. Their pencils flew furiously. Before long however, the apple fell back to the table, more bruises covering its surface.
"Reversal: 17 seconds."
The researchers were quite excited by this point. This little girl seemed to have a strong power. Though she couldn't maintain it for very long, it was promising. Before the researchers could call in to request to meet with the girl, the voice over the intercom spoke once more.
"Start: 24 G."
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Emery groaned as she pressed her face into a pillow. Why had she told the emperor she would think about it? She should have just said no. It was all too troublesome.
And her week was almost up.
She didn't have any real reason to reject him, except that she didn't want to use her power. Especially not in a competition fighting others. Not to mention, the more she used her power the harder it became to not use it. After showing Jun that trick the other day, she had found herself accidentally letting her power slip. Just yesterday she had woken up laying on the ceiling.
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"What are you grumbling about?"
Emery felt a pillow smack into the back of her head. She sat up, letting the pillow on top of her fall to the floor. "I'm not really grumbling..." She tossed the pillow he had thrown back at Victor.
"Sounded like you were to me."
Emery had lived with Victor for three years and they had known each other for much longer than that. They were the closest thing to a family either of them had. She hadn't told him about Jun's offer yet, mostly because she didn't know how to bring it up. But now that he'd asked...
"Do you remember how I lost my student handbook?" Emery began slowly.
"Yes?"
"Well... last week someone returned it."
"After a month?" Victor raised an eyebrow. "That's a long time to not have returned it."
Emery nodded. "I thought so too. So when it was first returned, I thought I was going to be blackmailed."
"Ahh, I see. Did they? Blackmail you?"
"No. They asked me to be their partner in the inter-school tournament."
Victor started laughing. "Who would want to be your partner?"
Emery glared at him and threw the other remaining pillow on the couch next to her. He dodged the pillow as he continued to laugh.
"Jun Park."
"Top students aren't normal," Victor muttered. "So what did you say?"
"I... haven't given him my answer."
"Why not? What do you think this is, a love confession?"
Emery wished she had another pillow to throw. "No! I just don't know how to say no to him."
"That means you don't have a good excuse. You probably thought something like, 'It's troublesome so I don't want to do it'."
Emery couldn't argue with his teasing. "That's not the only reason I don't want to."
Victor stared at her for a moment before his eyes softened. "You don't have to hide anymore, you know."
"Even if I know that, I can't stop so easily." Something dark flashed across Emery's eyes. "I don't want to ever feel that powerless again."
Victor smiled at Emery, but there was a sorrowfulness to his smile so it didn't quite reach his eyes. He turned into the kitchen and she could hear the sounds of him making tea.
For three years she had been hiding her power, but Victor was right. She didn't have a reason to anymore beyond her own insecurity.
Victor came back into the room with two cups of tea and pushed one into Emery's hands.
"I think you should accept Jun's partnership."
Emery blew lightly on her tea before taking a sip. Victor had steeped the leaves for the perfect amount of time and it gave off a nice fragrance.
"Why?"
"This girl, always asking why." Victor ruffled her hair. "I think you could use a boost to your college applications. And if Jun's your partner, that means you'll be only facing other S rated students."
Emery was going to hit Victor for his first reason before she let his second reason sink in. If she competed only against S rated students, then she may meet others from that incident three years ago. There were things she still didn't understand about that incident. If she were going to find out, it would have to be from others that were there.
And... she did need to start taking her college entrance prospects more seriously.
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Jun twirled his pen idly around his thumb, letting a little bit of smoke slip from his fingertips. The smoke swirled with the pen tip, curling around his fingers.
In the week since he had last spoken with Emery, he had doubled his efforts to dig up any information about her. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find the name of her power. He had even convinced a student with 「PERSUADE」 to ask one of the faculty members for the name of her power, but the teacher simply said one wasn't provided.
Jun knew this meant either her power was so complex it hadn't been named by the power association yet or the official name was removed from her records at the school.
He didn't believe it was the former. After all, the power association had taken years to name his power, but eventually they had, hadn't they? No matter how ridiculous the power, the association always came up with a name. Even if it was a stretch, like his 「CROW」.
His power had almost nothing to do with birds.
Not to mention, Emery had said she wouldn't tell him the name of her power yet, meaning her power definitely had a name. He suspected it was something obvious. If he knew the name, he'd know her power.
He stared down at the form in front of him and furrowed his brows at that blank space next to 「POWER」. He'd just have to wait for her to accept his partnership and have her write it in herself.