Abigail walked through the city of the academy and tried to stay positive. The city was nice she guessed. But where were the Caff-ix? It was her favorite coffee shop, not because she particularly liked coffee, no it was their breakfast sandwiches. They had this one with egg whites and turkey sausage that she ate almost every morning. Back home she could find a shop on every other block. She hadn’t even seen one store yet.
“Your father is the reason that there are so many stores at home.”
Abigail turned to meet the deadpan gaze of her maid, Sarah. Abigail very exaggeratedly shivered.
“You know it's gross when you read my thoughts like that.”
“Then maybe you should try and hide them. Oh wait, I shouldn’t ask that of someone with your mental stats.”
Those words cut like a knife, doubly so because of her unchanged face. Her humor had grown to mean ever since the trial. Sarah had black hair that was tied into a neat ponytail, and it swayed as she shook her head sadly. The aura of parental disappointment oozing from her earned her an eye roll. Sarah was a few years older than she was, and they had been together for as long as she could remember. Her family aside, Sarah was the only person she actually talked to. She couldn’t argue either.
“Now that’s just mean. Where are we going anyways?”
Abigail had just been following Sarah through the city.
“As I knew you would ignore my suggestion of checking the map, I had already found and marked all of the Caff-ix in the city. There are three such establishments, one of which was built this year at your mother’s request. That is where I’m taking you now. You also conveniently have an apartment within the upper forms of the building.”
That brightened Abigail’s mood considerably.
“Then why are we going so slowly?”
She picked up the pace and dragged Sarah along, only to be pulled in a different direction.
“Oh yes, please take the lead. I’m sure you know the way when you took a random and wrong turn for no reason. I mean, why would you turn? We have been walking in a straight line for the past five minutes.”
“You’re in a bad mood today.”
“Yes, I am. I was forced to stand in a line to complete your registration while you watched the rest of Star Crusaders. Then you began to spoil the episode when I finished.”
This time Sarah didn’t look amused in the slightest. Yeah, that was fair. But it had been such a good episode, and she couldn’t talk about it.
“Sorry?”
She wilted as she apologized and tried to put on the best puppy-dog eyes she had. Sarah sighed and nodded. It always worked. Their conversation was more normal as they approached the café.
The skyscrapers in the city were pretty plain. They lacked the same flair as home and were designed in some old style. It was dumb, considering all the foods, goods, and tech were relatively new. What was the point of looking old but being young inside? She shook her head as she stared at some of the buildings. She passed a few students and stopped at what was obviously a crowd.
“What’s going on?”
She asked Sarah who was taller than her by a lot. In fact, Sarah was tall enough to gaze over nearly everyone else. When she replied, her voice was empty of emotion.
“It looks like a fight.”
“What? really! Who's fighting?”
She began hopping to try and get a look but failed spectacularly. She was not that tall, and others were jumping too. Sarah smirked down at her.
“Want me to carry you? And let me check the public records.”
Sarah had an ocular implant rather than a tablet. Abigail had one too in the form of contacts but didn’t like using them. She preferred the tablet, but just checked her wrist as Sarah sent some information. There was a thin band on her wrist with a small screen. It fully functioned as a phone too. She read the screen as information ran down it.
The fight was between two people. One was an older boy named Jack, who was from a somewhat wealthy family. His physical stats were good, better than hers, and he ranked 233. Wow, now that was impressive. She didn’t think of her own rank but knew that she was in the bottom 20%. Which was very different from his opponent. The kid he was fighting was even older than him. Actually, wasn’t he too old to be here? He was a little older than Sarah, who just barely qualified to be a student. More importantly, he was ranked 87. She stared at his physical stats and grew confused. Those weren’t very impressive. How was he ranked so highly? When she looked up from her watch, she saw Sarah staring down at her. Somehow Sarah was near the front of the crowd now and had brought her along without her notice.
“So, who do you think is going to win?”
Sarah spoke only to her. Her voice was quiet enough to blend in with the noise of the crowd. Abigail looked at the two. Jack was burly and had a lot of cybernetics. His arms and legs were covered in a sheen of bright metal.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
On the other hand, the other guy, Clo wore a school uniform. Was that the default uniform? Not a single change at all. What a waste. He was handsome in a dangerous kind of way. And looks like that deserved a better outfit. She sighed as Sarah snickered when she caught her staring. It wasn’t like she was looking because he was handsome. Hadn’t Sarah just asked her to evaluate them? That wasn’t fair.
____________________________________________________________________________
Cain P.O.V
Cain stared at the very attractive students facing off against one another. Why were they fighting? He tried to pick up the reason from the conversations around him. It was something about ranks and status. Well, wasn’t that straight out of a movie? He could tell who would win already and was quite happy about it.
The really handsome one was named Clo, as he learned from the crowd, and he was an elite. Plus, he was one of lower status and class, which meant he was the hero here. Although, he looked more like the villain. Clo was like the sexy supervillain in a movie. Honestly, he had the looks to be an actor too. Short black hair that was tapered on the side and a little longer near the front was magazine level. The increased number of girls in the crowd made sense now.
He would’ve liked to join them in gushing over the boy, but it wasn’t so easy. He was BI, and they were very pretty. In fact, most students were beautiful. Either because of obvious alterations or just fitness and effort. Then there were the naturals like Clo, who were just blessed. It was pretty obvious that he was natural too. Some people couldn’t tell, but he was fairly certain of it.
Another student tapped him on the shoulder. And he turned to meet a woman who looked around his age. She had pinkish hair, eyes, and nails. Her clothes were also kind of pink. Ok, now that was too much pink. His sister would’ve loved it. He missed his family dearly, but paid attention as the girl spoke.
“Do you want to bet? Ten student credits.”
He wasn’t the only one being asked. A girl, and her maid? Wow, a real maid! In uniform and everything. And she was tall, like freakishly tall. It was kind of hot. And he turned toward the other girl to hide a blush. Only to find someone even more beautiful. Perfect blonde hair and statuesque features made her stand out even among the kids. Now, he had met two people who were too attractive to be of the same race as him. Hiding an even bigger blush, he turned to stare at the pink-haired girl. Who was pretty, but not a super famous actor pretty.
“Sure, I’ll bet on Clo.”
He tapped his finger on the proffered tablet and saw the deposit of ten credits. All transactions here used student credits and operated off of biological identification. In this case, it was fingerprint and facial recognition. He glanced at the dark-haired beauty of a maid, and the other girl could be a princess. He was curious. The princess bet on the other kid, and to his surprise, the maid bet on Clo. He listened as the maid criticized her lady.
“You are too focused on the physical attributes. At early levels, mental stats tend to matter more.”
He nodded his head unconsciously and tried to smoothly join in on the conversation. Having friends that are attractive would be nice. They were both out of his league in the case of a relationship, but he still wanted to try making friends. Even now, it felt weird to make friends. Too many bad memories when people found out about his sexuality and interests. But the maid seemed to know what she was talking about. Hopefully, she was also a fan of the pro circuit.
“Yeah. Even at the professional level, it becomes more important to look at the thresholds. The, uh, two in… is that fortitude? Dang will matter more than the other differences. Not to mention he probably has an e-grade gift considering his grade.”
He turned to look at the two girls and saw them staring. It was a little awkward to read the information on his new optical implant. His parent’s gift had been the latest computer contacts. Useful as they were, it was a little hard to figure out. He scratched at his said and winced as they just stared at him.
“Uhm, Hello? I’m Cain.”
They didn’t speak for a second but traded some suspicious glances. Then the princess answered for both of them.
“We’re not interested.”
Well, there went his first attempt at friendship. They thought he was hitting on them and explaining would make it worse. He winced remembering similar reactions when he first told people of his interests. He was about to run away into the rest of the crowd when the maid spoke.
“I apologize for Abigail’s rudeness, healer Cain. I’m Sarah a servant of the Kaminari family, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The maid used healer as a title, and she smiled at him kindly. Her voice was sharp and perfect, and he smiled in return. She was definitely pulled from a movie. Or like an NPC from a game. Either way, he respected the professionalism. But why care about him? The other girl, Abigail seemed equally confused and looked at the maid in disbelief. Sarah’s next words made both him and Abigail blush.
“Abigail, I don’t believe that Cain here was hitting on you. If I had to guess, I would say he is as interested as you are in that Clo boy.”
His eyes widened and he nearly flinched away, and his hair stood on end. He nearly had a panic attack with how much the words creeped him out.
“How do you know that? Why do you know that?”
As much as he wanted to run away, it would bother him if he didn’t find out. Even still his voice shook a little as he spoke. The maid’s eyes widened, and the girl looked a little alarmed too.
“It is listed in your public registration. You voluntarily included your sexuality, and it is listed as bi. And the boy is quite handsome. Was your listing a mistake?”
Cain heard the words and slapped his forehead, hard. His dad had done the registration, and he never cared about things like that. Most people didn’t when they were older, but some did. Especially kids and teenagers. For some reason, being BI made them assume he was hitting them. Regardless of their gender, which was stupid.
“No, it's fine. My dad did my registration. He was a little too eager. But yeah… I’m BI, but I wasn’t hitting on either of you. Not that you aren’t attractive or anything, but I wouldn’t just hit on random people.”
He tried not to sound hurt, but dark memories dug their way into his words. Both women seemed to notice too and gave him apologetic gazes. Abigail spoke first.
“Sorry, that was unfair of me. But, in my defense, someone actually tried to hit on me earlier, so I was in the wrong mindset. Also, Sarah has been really annoying all day and.”
She didn’t get to finish as the maid smacked the back of her head. That didn’t seem like the action of a servant.
“Stop talking, the healer arrived so the fight is starting.”
As the maid pulled their attention away, Cain looked at the space. They were in the middle of the road, and everyone cleared out to let the two fight. The healer wore a lab coat like a doctor, which was the basic healer outfit. It was an older man with a long beard and obviously dyed black hair. His voice was deep and robotic as he spoke.
“I will start the duel now. There will be a ten-second countdown before you can move. It is first to incapacitate. I hope you both are ready.”