A group of young children stood in an orderly line in front of a sterile white wall. The youngest was around the age of six, while the oldest could not be more than thirteen. A man with a lab coat stood before them, referring to a clipboard as he stopped in front of each child to examine them.

"Each of you had a name before you came here. Forget it. You will now be known by your 「POWER」. That is the only name you have that matters." The man met the gaze of each of the children one by one. "Understand?"

All the children replied in unison. "Yes, sir!"

Except one.

The man narrowed his eyes as he stepped up to the young girl around the age of eleven. He looked down at her file on his clipboard. He gripped her chin and made her meet his eyes. "Do you have something to complain about, 「DOVE」?"

The little girl didn't move her black eyes from his as she glared at him. "My name is Yoon-Ah."

The man slowly smiled, but there was no warmth in his face. "I see you don't understand the position you are in. You were abandoned here. There is no one who will pity or care about you. You belong to this institute. If I were to call you dog shit, that would be your name." He squeezed the little girl's chin until she let out a little cry of pain. "Do you understand, 「DOVE」?"

She glared at him through the tears that had sprung into her eyes. "My name is Yoon-Ah," she repeated.

The man released her chin before flinging his hand out. A loud slap resounded as the girl flew violently to the ground. The other children all flinched. The girl cried out as she caught herself on the cold tile floor.

The man stared down at the girl with dark eyes. "You will learn to respect me or you will learn to fear me. It makes no difference either way."

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Emery walked next to Jun as they left the staff room. Her head felt heavy. Why had she announced to Claire and Tomas she was Jun's partner? That was basically asking for the entire school to know! If they were the ones who said she was S rated, people might even actually believe them.

She doubted they had believed Jun, once they found out her rank in the school. They probably thought she was going to be his cannon fodder. She was sure they would investigate her origin. She just hoped they wouldn't come harass her. Really, she had made things extremely troublesome now.

"Don't worry."

Emery looked up at Jun's profile. "What?"

"Claire and Tomas."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He didn't offer more explanation than that. Emery puzzled over his meaning for a moment. Had he sensed she was fretting over them? Did he mean they wouldn't spread the news of their partnership to everyone? She wasn't positive what he was telling her not to worry about, but either way, she was grateful he was trying to comfort her.

Emery readjusted her bag and added a spring to her step. When they reached the front of the school, Jun stopped and looked down at her.

"You have your jersey?"

Emery gave him a thumbs up. "All prepared."

"Good."

Jun turned and left the school grounds. Emery felt they were starting to develop a weird trust. He would lead the way and she would follow. The emperor never looked back to make sure she was behind him, he was just confident she would be. And Emery was starting to understand that he would never leave her behind, either. Whenever he started walking too fast and heard her small footsteps struggling to catch up, he would slow enough for her to reach his side.

They walked this way to the bus stop before getting on a bus Emery had never taken before. She wasn't positive of where they were going, but she was sure Jun was taking her somewhere test out her power.

When they stepped off the bus, Emery paused on the sidewalk to take in the building in front of her. She knew it would be some sort of gym or training facility, but this... wasn't this one of the training facilities run by the power association?

"You coming?" Jun stood with the door to the facility open. Emery hurried into the building, her face flushing with embarrassment.

Jun walked to the counter and presented a membership card. Emery stood behind him, trying not to gawk at her surroundings.

The training facility lobby was covered in chrome. Behind the check-in counter, there were various training rooms Emery could see with walls made of glass. There were rooms with weights, rooms with various gymnastics equipment, and rooms with different environments, such as a room with a large pool, a room with what looked like plenty of large boulders, and even one with fire.

Jun handed her a guest pass card and indicated she should follow him to the changing rooms.

Emery struggled to keep her jaw from dropping open. She had gone to a power gym with Victor once during a free trial day, but it had been nothing compared to this place. And their registration fee had been more than Victor and Emery were willing to pay. She couldn't imagine the price of a membership to this place.

They went their separate ways to change. Emery felt shabby in her plain school jersey. She didn't have any other work out clothes, though. When the emperor appeared, she felt even more shabby. He was dressed in a professional power training body suit. The difference in status could really be felt between a peasant and royalty!

He paid no mind to her school jersey and started walking towards one of the weight rooms. Emery didn't need to be told to follow before she hurried after him.

"Your power, 「GRAVITY」. What does it do?" Jun stood with his arms folded in front of a series of varying weights.

Emery blinked at him. She shrugged. "It controls gravity."

Jun narrowed his eyes. "All of it?"

She nodded. "All of it."

Jun didn't know if he should laugh. She couldn't be serious. To control all of gravity? In it's entirety? There were powerful S rated powers out there, but that kind of power pushed into SS rated territory.

"Explain."

Emery sighed and stepped towards the weights. "Do you have a basic understanding of physics?"

Jun nodded and indicated for her to continue.

"Well, when talking about gravity, it's often explained in 'G's of force, right? Without making things too complicated, I can influence those Gs of force." Emery bent down and picked up a small weight of one kilogram. "Right now, this weight is under 1G of force." Emery looked at the weight and in the next moment it was floating freely above her hand. "Now it's zero G." She blinked and the weight dropped into her palm. "The opposite of that, I can also increase the Gs."

Jun tried not to let his jaw drop. "All of gravity."

Emery nodded. "All of it."

Jun paused. He couldn't overestimate her power. There were limitations to everyone. She might have a smaller range or a limit to what objects could be influenced. He would have to slowly train with her to learn all the ways her power could be used. But if it could be used on opponents, making them weightless would certainly help with close range combatants.

Emery placed the small weight back onto the ground and turned to Jun, copying his stance. "Enough show and tell from me. What does 「CROW」do?"