The faint chatter of the roughly one hundred first years fluttered through the large room, their eyes loosely trained on Kousako as Vestro led them to the empty seat at the front of the sitting students. Gesturing to the seat, Vestro waited for Kousako to sit down but as they blankly stared at the chair Vestro rubbed his eyes.
"I'm only going over there," Vestro uttered, flinching mildly while pointing to a floating circular dark metallic tablet surrounded by various stone constructs. Kousako peered between the tablet, the rows of bookshelves, and the empty seat. After a little wait, they released Vestro's hand and climbed onto the chair, leaving Vestro to rub the small red handprint on his hand as he strolled over to the tablet.
The other first years continued to murmur, wondering how someone could be so close to the Sovereign of Elves without anyone knowing who they were. Kousako paid the murmurs no mind, not realising the subject of their murmuring was in fact them, until they felt the chair beside them rattle as the person behind it leaned against it.
"Hey, Omasukou, do you know who they are, do you??" Atlasuo asked excitedly, his voice filled to the brim with enthusiasm it was almost intoxicating. He rocked his hands back and forth, the slight loose bracelets he wore rattled against his wrists like out-of-tune wind chimes, and clung to Omasukou's chair in an attempt to get his friend's attention. The metal chinking mix with the shaking only served to aggravate Omasukou's already high frustration levels from all the muttering.
(Atlasuo Strumkaull is a very short humanoid teen, and he is half-angel and half-human; he has slightly long spikey black hair tied behind his head into a messy low ponytail, pale cyan eyes, slightly pronounced hips, slightly small feathery wings on his thighs and back, fair skin and various large golden tattoo strips [on his waist, forearms, shoulders, and cheeks])
(Atlasuo is wearing slightly large pink metal bracelets, no clothes on his torso, a metalic black belt, dark grey cotton shorts, black leggings, and dark grey metal getas)
(Omasukou Tao is a humanoid teen who's slightly above average height for a teen, and he is a half-elf and half-fae; he has neck-low scruffy and spikey snow white hair, a slim slightly toned body, emerald green eyes with dark purple sclera edges by his tear ducts, super pointy elf ears, body has a faint soothing dark purple and pale green light radiating from his body, dark wood-textured horns on his forehead, and dark tanned skin)
(Tao is wearing pitch black cargo trousers with snow white hatching stripes around the thighs and ankle areas, a black and dark grey vertical striped tank top, an emerald green short-sleeved leather jacket, and emerald green fur boots)
"Knock it off, are you trying to get in trouble before we even got past orientation?" Omasukou whispered calmly, a faint temper behind his voice at his friend's question. Atlasuo awkwardly raised his eyes, catching Vestro unamusedly staring straight at him while pointing a finger to the floor. He meekly chuckled releasing his hands for the chair and slinking back into his own chair. Vestro let out an exhausted sigh before turning his attention to the whole class.
"Greeting one and all; due to unforeseen circumstances, I shall be taking over today's entrance examinations, and no, Atlasuo, the original examiner didn't die," Vestro stated, his tone of voice insinuating he saw the question coming a mile away before it had even been asked. Atlasuo slowly lowered his hand before raising his hand again, making Vestro rub his eyes. Vestro shook his head with half a mind to ignore him, mentally wondering how he could have another question, but he knew Atlasuo wouldn't budge until he got an answer.
"And no, I didn't lose a bet," Vestro added, his response being satisfactory for Atlasuo as he lowered his hand. Vestro raised a hand, the tablet behind him flickering to life in tandem with his hand, and snapped his fingers, conjuring a beam of mana from the tablet which formed into a glass-like table above its surface. Lowering his hand, Vestro gestured to the hand imprint on the glassy screen and, just making sure, glanced at Kousako to ensure they were paying attention before catching Kousako staring at Omasukou's eyes.
"That will make things easier," Vestro thought before muttering something under his breath. Kousako swung their head around, their eyes primed to Vestro, and Vestro mentally flinched at the intensity thrown at him from Kousako's piercing gaze alone.
"N-now, all you lot need to do is place your hand upon the hand imprint, and your ID Plate and Acadamy Card will be created," Vestro explained calmly. The first years acknowledged Vestro's instruction, and Vestro waved for the students at the back of the group to come up for evaluation.
After watching more than a hundred students get evaluated and leave the room, Kousako raised their hand out, mimicking the same actions they'd repeatedly seen performed before them, and glanced over to Omasukou with emotionless eyes. As they continued to stare, Omasukou glanced slightly away from Kousako's direction, desperately trying to keep an unbothered demeanour. Still, the fuzzy sensation, brought on by the staring made his attempt increasingly futile. Clutching his fist against his shoulders, Omasukou cast a side eye at Kousako in an attempt to match the intensity directed at him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
However, at the briefest of eye contact, a tidal wave of pressure stuck him, rattling every bone in his body, filling Omasukou with an oddly foreboding sensation of deja vu. He darted his eyes to the side frantically as the other person next to Kousako went up for evaluation.
"What?" Omasukou asked, his voice mildly strained. Trying to regain some of his lost composure, Omasukou sat up straight and fixed some superficial errors in his attire. Kousako blankly stared at him with their big ol' eyes before glancing at their raised hand and then pointing it at Omasukou. Omasukou braced himself, his mind racing at what their next words might be, the building unease being expedited by Kousako's piercing gaze.
"Is this right?" Kousako asked, leaving Omasukou at such a loss for words, he deflated back into his chair at the mundanity of Kousako's question. Feeling a little led on but relieved all the same, Omasukou similarly covered his eyes to Vestro and lightly exhaled.
"It's not that ha... ...yeah it's fine...," Omasukou grumbled, his voice trailing off at the sight of Kousako's perfectly smooth hand catching his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but the call of his name put a wedge in his thought process, eliciting annoyed murmurs from him as he rose to his feet.
"I guess you want to get me out of the way to deal with little... erm... smooth fingers over there privately," Omasukou remarked snarkily, slapping his hand against the glassy screen's handprint.
"I wouldn't say privately is applicable here," Vestro replied, mildly waving his hand dismissively as Omasukou rolled his eyes. The tablet sprung to life, allowing its radiating light to ripple out and waft against past the stone constructs, turning them into blinding beacons. The light of the constructs shot off the stone constructs, focusing themselves through the glassy screen like a magnifying lens as two rectangles began forming at the centre of the screen. As quickly as they appeared, the light shattered into particles, disappearing to reveal an ID Plate and an Academy Card.
"Everything in order?" Kousako asked, standing in the spot perfectly between Vestro and Omasukou. Omasukou jumped at the sudden appearance of Kousako right beside him, almost tripping over his own feet as he jumped back.
"How long have you been there!" Omasukou exclaimed in a fit of shock.
"They walked up here with you," Vestro stated, pointing out that Omasukou had been holding Kousako's hand the whole way from the chairs to the tablet. Omasukou defeatedly groaned, attempting to raise his lowered hand but it didn't move an inch, confirming something was indeed holding onto it. However, he dared not look, his face turning slightly red as he refused to physically acknowledge his hand being held.
"Why is their hand so warm?" Omasukou grumbled, catching a stray snicker from Alleutia as she floated past the room's door, only plummeting Omasukou's embarrassment into the gutters.
"Warm?" Vestro mentally remarked as he gestured for Omasukou to remove his ID Plate and Academy Card. Once removed, Omasukou stepped to the side, giving Kousako plenty of space to stand directly in front of the glassy screen.
"For you, Kousako, I will need to have you do things slightly differently," Vestro stated as he reached to one of the stone structures and picked up a shortsword made entirely of bronze. Kousako tilted their head, confusion etched on the way they tilted their head as they remained visually unaffected.
"Seeing as you don't possess fingerprints, you'll need to place an Echelon on the projection table," Vestro explained, demonstrating how to place an echelon on the glassy screen using the bronze shortsword Echelon as an example. Kousako nodded staring at the shortsword briefly before turning to Vestro, a mild briskness in their step.
"Does Kousako need to use that one?".
"Naturally, you would use your own Echelon," Omasukou remarked with a low mumble, "And since he's giving you that option, I assume that means, you already have your own, correct?". Kousako nodded, purposely moving to the closest stone pillar and reaching a hand behind it, obscuring their hand from the other two's views. As Kousako moved their hand around, the sound of metallic rattling chimed into the elven duo, casting a confused cloud over Omasukou while Vestro returned the bronze Echelon back to where he got it from.
"To be clear, you should use the one you primarily use," Vestro stated, calmly mentioning that Kousako can postpone this part of the evaluation until they get them a less conspicuous Echelon.
"But Kousako can't use those ones," Kousako stated boldly, a stark contrast to their usual emotionless disposition. They began pulling the handle of a sword-type Echelon out from behind the stone construct in a fashion similar to a rabbit being pulled out from a top hat. Kousako swiftly placed the sword on the glassy screen, replicating the movements as Vestro did with the bronze Echelon; Kousako made sure it was within the border of the screen but found some difficulty in doing so with a single hand, refusing to free their other hand from its current supporting task, as Vestro narrowed his eyes at the Echelon Kousako chose.