Chapter Eight: My First Time: Part Two
The tension in the air was palpable, thick with the weight of anticipation and uncertainty. Nervous murmurs rippled through the crowd of recruits, each one wondering how they would fare when their turn came. The Captain, his expression hard and unyielding, stood before the shimmering Perfect Cube and called out, "Number 4820, approach the Cube."
A hulking man stepped forward, his presence intimidating. His face twisted into a smug grin as he sized up the younger recruits. "I don’t know why they have children here," he sneered, casting a condescending glance at Yozora and the others, "but let me show you brats what a real Tuner should be."
The man strode toward the Cube, his confidence radiating as he reached out to touch it. But as his hand made contact with the surface, nothing happened. Not a flicker of energy, not the slightest reaction from the Cube. The smug grin on his face faltered as murmurs from the recruits grew louder.
The Captain, visibly irritated, pinched the bridge of his nose before muttering, "4820, if you can’t manipulate the Cube in anyway, you will be terminated." His voice was sharp, leaving no room for doubt about the seriousness of the situation.
The man's face flushed with panic, his earlier arrogance crumbling. Realizing the gravity of the moment, the other recruits stiffened, their casual murmurs turning to uneasy silence. The threat of failure suddenly felt much more real.
"Try again," the Captain ordered, his voice echoing through the mic.
Swallowing hard, the man approached the Cube once more, this time without the bravado. His hand trembled as he touched the diamond surface, but still—nothing. No movement, no energy, no reaction. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cold.
"Wait, wait!" the man stammered, stepping back in desperation. "Something must be wrong... the kids—they make me nervous!" His voice cracked as he turned toward the young recruits, tears streaming down his face. But before anyone could respond, the tears began to freeze, crystallizing on his cheeks as the cold tightened its grip on him. His skin grew pale, frost creeping over his entire body.
In mere seconds, the man was entirely frozen, his last expression one of terror, locked in ice.
Skipping lightly across the frozen ground, Blair approached, her energy an eerie contrast to the deadly silence that had overtaken the clearing. She stopped beside the frozen man, grinning mischievously. "Oops!" she chirped, and with a light push, she tipped the man over.
He fell with a hollow crack, shattering into a million glittering shards of ice upon impact with the ground.
The recruits stood in stunned silence, the reality of their situation sinking in. The Cube wasn't just a test—it was life or death
With an air of indifference, the Captain’s voice rang out. “7328, touch the Cube.”
A boy with jet-black hair, slicked back meticulously with a comb, stepped forward. His eyes held a gleam of mischief as he casually approached the shimmering Cube. Without breaking eye contact with the Captain, 7328 extended his pinky finger and gently touched the Cube’s surface. Instantly, the image of a tiger flickered to life within his Toro, its presence rippling through the energy field.
A smirk played across 7328’s lips as he whispered, “Hawks.”
The Cube’s radiance changed, taking on an otherworldly glow as it emitted a type of energy never before seen on Earth—Hawking Radiation. The atmosphere in the test area shifted dramatically. Alarms blared from all directions, piercing the stillness of the icy forest. In response, energy barriers formed around the other recruits, automatically protecting them from the dangerous radiation.
Suddenly, there was a deafening sonic boom. In the blink of an eye, the Captain appeared in front of 7328, his Toro blazing around him like an unbreakable shield. His expression was stern, yet calm.
“Turn it back. Now.”
7328 gave a casual shrug, as if the chaos he had caused was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. With a flick of his wrist, the Cube returned to its normal state, the radiation vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. The alarms quieted, and the tension in the air slowly dissipated.
As he walked away, 7328 muttered under his breath, “This is what they wanted, anyway.” His smirk deepened, knowing full well that he had just proven his control over something beyond the reach of most Tuners.
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After a few hours of radiation checks, staff safety checks, and sample checks the situation calmed down. The Captain looks to Blair, 7328 is a bender rank B
Blair, catching the subtle flicker of satisfaction on the Captain’s face, couldn’t resist teasing him. "Ohhh, I wish you’d look at little ol' me like that," she joked, her voice dripping with mock flirtation.
The Captain's eyebrow twitched slightly, barely raising. His voice remained steady but firm. "Blair, shut your mouth and focus up."
Blair rolled her eyes, waving her hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, party pooper," she muttered, but her grin didn’t fade. She snatched the microphone from the Captain, leaning into it with a playful smirk.
"1389, approach the Cube!"
A murmur rippled through the crowd of recruits. No one saw 1389 stepping forward. Blair scanned the test area, confusion crossing her face. "Where the hell—" she muttered, until her eyes caught movement above. She looked up to see a boy floating lazily in the air, suspended as if held by invisible threads of wind.
Blair’s expression twisted into mock outrage. "Hey! Kid, get down here! You little brat!" She stomped over, grabbing the boy by the wrist once he lowered slightly, tugging him down. "Of course you’re 1389," she grumbled. "Now go place your hand on the Cube before I eat you alive," she added, storming off, though her annoyance was exaggerated.
The boy, apologetic but unphased, floated gracefully toward the Cube, as if carried by the breeze itself. He placed his hand on the shimmering surface, and immediately, a strong gust of wind began to whip through the test area. The trees surrounding them swayed violently as the air itself seemed to come alive, vibrating with raw energy.
With a calm and measured voice, 1389 softly commanded, "Cycle of Winds." The Cube lifted off the ground, effortlessly levitating on the palm of his hand, spinning gently as if caught in the eye of a storm.
The boy glanced over at the Captain, unsure of himself, and gave an awkward thumbs-up, his expression a mix of pride and nervousness. The Cube continued to hover, cradled by the winds he controlled, the air swirling around him like a gentle, protective force.
"Yeah, cool, good for you. Now put my Cube down," Blair said, waving a hand dismissively as 1389 gently lowered the Cube back to the ground. She then shot a sideways glance at the Captain, her expression almost childlike, silently asking, Did I get the angry voice right?
The Captain shook his head slightly, unimpressed. "1389, Vector/Cemi, Grade C," he announced, his tone flat and official.
Blair playfully snatched up the tablet holding the list of recruits. She twisted it this way and that, squinting at the names as if she couldn’t figure out who was next. "Let’s see... uh, here we go—4419!" She grinned, mischief in her eyes. "Give it your best shot... or die trying!" She threw an exaggerated nudge at the Captain, looking at him with a cheeky smile. "Am I right?"
The Captain remained stoic, barely acknowledging her antics.
Out from the group stepped a boy with a strikingly different physical presence compared to the others. He was built taller, stronger—far more mature than anyone else in the group of 4- to 8-year-olds. His hands buried in his shorts, and he yawned lazily as he strolled forward, his expression one of complete disinterest. But his eyes—piercing and focused—cut through the air like daggers. Without warning, he blew a kiss at Blair.
Blair blinked, caught completely off guard. "Wait—Captain," she stammered, flustered, a twitch forming at her temple. "Isn’t this group supposed to be 4- to 8-year-olds? Why does he look practically grown?"
4419 stopped in front of the Cube, taking one hand out of his shorts and pointing his finger at Blair like a gun."Pow, pow, pow," he said with a sly wink.
The Cube began to shake violently as if some unseen force had seized control. It flickered and replicated, multiplying into a hundred identical Cubes, all vibrating with intensity.
Blair’s eyes widened, her mouth slightly open in surprise. "Pow, pow," 4419 said again, this time more playfully, as the newly formed Cubes morphed into thousands of razor-sharp arrows, each one floating in the air, poised and dangerous. Blair gasped, clamping her hands over her mouth, her face turning red as she blushed uncontrollably.
4419 smirked, casually lowering his hand and returning it to his pocket. With a mere thought, the thousands of arrows reformed back into a single Cube, settling it quietly in its original state on the platform. He turned his eyes toward the Captain, his smirk growing bolder. "Don’t make me steal your shorty," he said with a cocky grin.
Blair, still on the ground, was rolling around, trying to muffle her laughter behind her hands, completely flustered. The Captain, for once, was speechless, his expression a rare blend of surprise and disbelief at the sheer audacity of the situation.
Regaining his composure, the Captain cleared his throat. "4419, Augmenter, Grade C," he said, still processing the boy’s performance, though clearly less enthused than Blair.
The process dragged on for hours. One by one, recruits stepped up to the Cube, and most were swiftly eliminated, either through failure or termination. The Captain, his patience worn thin, stood with an expression of complete boredom. With a sigh, he called out, "Number 369, step up and be terminated."
All eyes turned to Yozora, the last number called. His movements were slow, deliberate, as he approached the Cube. His eyes were half-closed, his expression calm and uninterested, as if none of this mattered. He placed his hand softly on the Cube, and... nothing happened.
The Captain's face twisted with anger. "Out of a thousand of you," he spat, "only a handful were capable of accessing the Toro. This is pathetic!"
Suddenly, a sonic boom exploded through the air as the Captain appeared behind Yozora in an instant, his presence crackling with suppressed fury. "All that smug indifference, and for what?" the Captain growled. "Hurry up and try again, so I can terminate you myself."
Yozora slowly turned to face the Captain, his expression unchanged, completely unfazed by the threat. "Sir,"he said, his voice calm, "please move. If you don’t, you might get hurt."
The Captain’s eyes flared with pure rage. Without hesitation, he began infusing Hindo, swirling around him like a storm ready to crush Yozora. "You’re done, kid," the Captain hissed, his voice filled with venom. "Get terminated."
But in that same moment, something extraordinary happened. Yozora began to rise into the air, his feet lifting off the ground effortlessly, his body floating alongside the Cube.
A deafening roar, as if thunder from a supercell storm, erupted inside the ears of everyone present. The sound reverberated through the test area, shaking the very foundation of the frozen landscape. As the recruits looked on in shock, jagged spires of ice shot up from the floor, piercing the air like frozen spears. The temperature plummeted further, and a low, eerie humming filled the atmosphere, as if the Toro itself was singing.
The Captain's furious expression shifted to one of confusion and then dread. His Hindo-infused energy wavered, his stance faltering as he realized he was witnessing something far beyond what he had anticipated.
In the blink of an eye, everything vanished. The storm-like energy, the ice formations, the deafening hum—everything disintegrated into thin air. The Cube and Yozora were nowhere to be found, leaving only stunned silence in their wake.
The recruits stood frozen, unsure of what they had just witnessed. Even the Captain, for all his power and authority, was left speechless, staring at the empty space where Yozora had just been.