Kai’s expression showed tiredness, or boredom. Wasn’t sure which. He had never been too keen on participating in ceremonies and similar rituals, which I wasn’t too willing to participate in either. Syl was expectant though. Observing her surroundings trying to identify other participants with the same worries we had, and maybe catching a glance on the ones we should be most careful of.

We were standing next to the entrance at first. Kai and me leaning on the fence that delimited the area where the ceremony was taking place. Syl on the other hand was standing straight, not caring about her other two companions, which were looking at her curiously. Attentive, with an ingenious gaze, scanning through the road and looking for someone she recognised. I wasn’t sure if she was just aimlessly observing other participants or if she had someone in particular she wanted to recognise. She had been studying our options last night apparently. The list of participants had been released some time ago and the names were more than enough to investigate on the skills of each of them. I had intended for her to lead the way across the competition. Even before earning her vital she had been a reliable person. She had never been too interested in leadership, and that’s one of the reasons she fit that role so well.

Kai on the other hand hadn’t prepared at all. The reason why he was tired was because he had been playing on the computer for a long while before going to sleep. He probably would have skipped the introduction if it hadn’t been for Syl and me banging on the door of his apartment. His sight completely unaware of the situation, he kept leaning forward and backwards as he fought his urges to close his eyes. I curiously looked at him, expecting something fun to happen in some instants. But he was able to hold well against his tiredness. So, I decided to help him a bit.

I heard a thud as his butt hit the floor, waking him up quickly. The leg I had pushed now laying on the floor as the other one still held its position against the ground.

—Hey! —he exclaimed angrily.

—I thought you were going to take care of everything, man. How are you going to do that if you can’t even keep your eyes open the first day.

But he wasn’t even listening to me, now taking the opportunity to sit on the floor instead, and using his arms to rest on his knees to cover himself from the morning’s sunlight. I was amused at his reaction though, his childish behaviour bringing a smile to my face.

I turned towards Syl. She was still looking at the crowd. I was unable to find anyone I recognised, so I wondered who she was looking for exactly. Her eyes wide open, observant, and careful of not letting anyone go unnoticed. Her pupils wide black dots on her brown iris, her lashes opening as she blinked every now and then.

—Who are we waiting for? Is it anyone I know?

No reply at first, she was too distracted. I cleared my throat, trying to catch her attention.

—Oh! Sorry! I didn’t hear you —her clear voice directed to me—. I am just trying to see the rest of the participants. Our seats are reserved anyways. No one is going to take them, so we can take some time outside — I was unsure she was telling me everything though.

Still kept looking. Trying to peek over the heads around us, most of them taller than her.

—You can jump on the fence if you want, it’s going to be easier to see everyone from above.

—No need.

Ok. She was definitely waiting for someone.

She then looked at her phone, checking her messages, to then proceed to run away into the mass of people. I sighed. It would have been nice if she had told us about her intentions. But Kai seemed to be completely lost in his own mind by now.

When she came back, I wasn’t surprised to see another figure coming right behind her. Her hand holding his arm and dragging him into us. I quivered. The man was taller than the average participant. From what I could tell, not much older than us. I didn’t recognise his robes, debating whether it belonged to some organisation. But it didn’t look like it. His hair had been left to grow for a while as he let it fall to the sides of his head. His glasses were big, and black, the background distorted through the lenses. He probably couldn’t see well without them. I wondered if it was a consequence of his image.

—Guys… This is Ethan. Ethan… These are Nath and Kai, the other two participants I was talking to you about — She introduced us.

—Nice to meet you, I’m Ethan.

—Hi Ethan. I’m Nath, and his name is Kai —I said, pointing at my sleeping friend—. It’s a pity he cannot join us right now, but I don’t think he would have been too interested in our conversation anyways. Sorry about that.

—It’s fine don’t worry. Our conversation shouldn’t be too long anyways. I don’t know if she has talked about me at all, but she has told me about some of her stories with you Nath, so I was eager to meet you— So she talked about me to others?

—He is a contact of mine since we finished high school. He is in the committee that our school used to promote events with images. He is good at his job, and I expected he could give us some help with all the knowledge he has in the field —She explained.

I nodded at that— Oh, thank you very much for your help then. Hope you can help us with anything then. We’re still a bit lost to be honest— I said as I scratched the back of my head.

—Don’t worry about that. She has told me about your vitals. They are not really popular in the general public, but with people like me, who are often involved with a great number of candidates, it is not uncommon to come into contact with vital users like you two —Syl smiled at that, as if the mention of her ability made her proud of it— It is usually an advantage for participants, since many opponents mistake them for images. But it also depends on your specific skills. A weapon holder has many more possibilities. If the vital can be mixed in with the specific ability of your image, the possibilities during combat grow exponentially —So, she hadn’t told him about my condition then.

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I was surprised she had found someone like him. It was an advantage to have someone so knowledgeable on our side. He probably was one of those individuals that went around the country getting students to participate in competitions. I was unsure of his intentions though. I wasn’t too open to discuss important things like strategies with him, even less to talk about our resources like our own abilities. If he had agreed to help us, it must have been something he did often with other groups. Or was he just charmed by the beauty of a young woman? But I wasn’t going to throw away this opportunity anyways. It just meant I could gain information from him while being mindful of keeping quiet about any specifics of our group.

—Are vitals common in tournaments like this? I don’t know if you have specifically been involved with the organisation of the Challenger’s path. But is it likely to encounter others like us during the competition?

—I cannot guarantee it to you. Numbers vary over different years, depending on the luck each generation has had with finding such weapons before the Guard does. But some of them have been recurring participants. I personally know about three of them this year, but the general number is around six or seven per edition. If you’d like to know more about them, I’m sorry, I cannot disclose their personal information without their permission —So that was the limit of what I could ask.

He kept going though —But as a general advice I would tell you not to worry too much about them. They are skilful fighters. But that does not mean they are likely to make it to the top.

—What do you mean? —I enquired.

—Vitals are hard to get. And it is even harder to obtain a powerful one. In a society where vitals are so scarce, it is way easier to rely on Images. Vitals pose an advantage against lower ranked image users, but it is hard to outplay the more skilled kind of fighters. Let’s just say I would be more wary of other participants. This year’s are especially interesting —He turned to Syl— A bunch of monsters have been attracted by the involvement of the Guardian this year. I have hope that specifically you, Silvia, will be a challenge to them. I’m sorry about this, eh… Nath. I know little about you, so it is hard to evaluate your chances. I am sure that as companions you will manage to figure out a way to show yourselves off.

That was nothing new to us, though. Kai had already warned us of the scarier opponents of this year’s Path. I wasn’t sure how much of a problem it would be for him to fulfil his promise. Even if I had faith in him, the reach of his abilities had a limit. Most of it, I was sure, was just trash talking. But his assessment of Syl’s skills was what surprised me the most. Not because I did not believe she was indeed skilled, but because it was hard to tell the strength of the average participant. In the end I had only trained together with Syl. The monster that was our teacher, Jon, was obviously out of our league, but I had been wondering for a while how we compared to other contenders.

—Thanks for your opinion, but it is something else I wanted to talk about… — Syl said, speaking to the man.

—Oh, yeah. Regarding allies… —So that’s why she asked him to speak with us. It made sense— Direct contact with other specific freelance groups is not something I can help you with, contract policies and stuff. Despite this, finding companions is something I highly advise. The spotlight is usually taken by academies such as the Academy of Image, and not because of nothing. A group is more likely to thrive in this environment. Given what you told me, I assume only you two are looking for a group, right? —We nodded; Kai still unaware of our conversation— Very well then. What I would advise you is to use the first phases of the competition to gather groupmates for the rest of the tournament. The earlier phases are usually more relaxed and open to new individuals, specifically to allow for lone participants to find a group to join. The bigger the group, the better. Usually look for people ranked up in the leader boards, competent participants should be your priority.

That was a good option. During the first phases we would be able to not only talk with people, but also assess their strength, instead of just hoping for them to keep their word during the tournament. I still pondered about us three though. Should we go our separate ways? Maybe find a group for each and let Kai do what he wanted. This would increase our chances of reaching the end of the tournament. Since two groups would need to lose to get one of us out of the race. The more the merrier.

He kept going —You could either find other independent fighters, but probably the easier way is to join already existing groups.

—Any recommendations on who to join? —I wondered.

—There is a balance that needs to be maintained in these situations. Obviously joining a stronger group, like one of the favourites, would be more beneficial. The issue is that these are usually harder to join since they are interested only in the strongest. You should assess your own strength and then pick a group that fits your abilities. Any weaker and you might risk losing, any stronger and it will be unlikely for you to be let in —He gestured with his hands, mimicking a balancing scale.

We already knew a bunch of possibilities we had. Syl likely had connections with other academies, probably even Kai did. We could try out with those. Even I, maybe, could try joining the Academy of image, using my brother’s name. They were a wide and skilled group that had laid among the favourites for years since my brother had led them. If we wanted to increase our chances to win, the Academy of Image was indeed one of the best options. I was curious to meet the man Kai had warned me about, though. The story had weirded me for a while. What was a student doing in a place like that. Not to mention the problem that was to us someone that could defeat an entire base of criminals on his own. We knew nothing of his image. Maybe finding out would be useful in case we became opponents in the end. Kai was already a weird one, but I should probably be wary of people like them.

I was lost in my own thought as the man left, waving to us as Syl said goodbye to him. Probably something to do in the organisation of the ceremony. It was a quick chat, but a welcome one.

—What’s your opinion on all this?

She was talking to me.

—It was a useful chat. But I’m not sure what to do about it though. There are many possibilities, so it is hard to predict an outcome so early. Our best option is to follow his advice and start looking for teammates once the tournament’s started. I’m balancing the option of us getting into the stronger groups, but it might be an issue for us, since this is our first tournament.

In the end though. We were participating because we wanted to gain connections with the Guard. Giving it a try was worth our time. Winning or losing was secondary as long as we could impress the Guardian: Haze. What a mysterious individual.

Kai opened his eyes slowly as he lifted his head from his knees.

—Good morning! —Syl said cheerfully.

—Are we going in or not?

I looked at Syl waiting for a confirmation that that was all she wanted to do before getting in. She nodded.

—Let’s go, then— I encouraged.