Morning came at last, the sun shining through the window covering every inch of their dorm.
Kairo woke up first, then he heard the bell ring. He disappeared on the spot, then reappeared in four different places at the same time as he bathed,brushed his teeth, comb his hair
He then woke Takumi, who was enjoying his sleep.
"Takumi, wake up, it's morning dude."
"No, leav- leave meee!!"
"You leave me no choice." Kairo went to the basin area, fetched a bowl of water and dumped it on Takumi's head.
The shock forcefully woke him up, with his hair all messy and bags under his eyes.
"Come, we're gonna be late." Kairo grabbed his uniform from the chair
"What about Itsuki? Where is he?" Takumi asked.
"Didn't see him this morning, maybe he already left."
"Yeah, probably." Takumi yawned, rubbing his eyes
The two of them put on their black and white training uniforms and made their way to the training grounds and joined the formation.
Kairo noticed the missing space.
Itsuki's position in their formation was vacant. Kairo knew Itsuki would never be late for the first training session. He is almost never late for anything important.
Not long after, an instructor came up, a standing in a sharp gray suit with a white shirt and black tie, a fedora tilted on his head casting shadows over his eyes. Wearing white gloves, shadows concealed his expression, making it impossible to read his intentions as he stood in front of twenty-five new recruits.
"Welcome to Zenkai Dojo once again.I hope you've settled in well. I am instructor Lewin and I will be handling your trainings from now till you ascend to tier 3." He smiled as he talked with eyes closed slightly.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman appeared beside him, dressed in an elegant black and white outfit adorned with intricate gold armor plating. Her flowing white and black robes swayed gracefully as she moved, the ornate golden accents tracing along her arms, torso, and legs like ancient battle regalia.
"Ah Lady Nevara, These are the new recruits that joined yesterday," Lewin said.
"Is that so," she said while scanning through the recruits.
She moved closer and passed each of them one by one with all the male recruits trying very hard to look forward and not at the curve of her armor accentuating her athletic frame.
Reaching the line where Kairo was standing, she leaned in with her long, flowing white hair cascading over her shoulders, her delicate features and piercing eyes studying him intently. Heat flooded Kairo's cheeks as she leaned closer and closer towards his face.
Kairo's face was deep red already. He thought to himself:
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Please lean back!!!
He felt the weight of twenty gazes on him. They were all filled with killing intent.
Kairo stayed composed. This was the first time in his life a girl came within one inch of his lips.
Nevara smiled, then she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, closing her eyes.
From behind, Kairo felt like twenty-five swords were stabbed at his back, with the others watching with serious jealousy.
Nevara didn't stop kissing him, and for what reason Kairo didn't know. He just stood his ground and remained composed even though his lips were busy.
After five minutes of Nevara smooching Kairo, she stopped and looked into his eyes, then said:
"Oh my dear prince, how are you feeling today, honey?"
Hearing this, Lewin already knew what was going on and let out a "Pfft—" Then he went closer to Nevara, who was still holding Kairo, and said:
"Ahem, Lady Nevara, you aren't sleeping anymore."
She replied, "Yes, I know."
Then Lewin, with a wave of his hand, made something appear—HER GLASSES.
Without her glasses, Nevara had been blind—literally. She'd acted out her dream, mistaking Kairo's blurry outline for her fantasy prince.
Lewin took the liberty of putting on her glasses for her. As soon as she could see clearly and saw Kairo's red face (he looked like her prince though), she slowly removed her hands from his shoulders and slapped him with full force embedded with essence.
"YOU PERVERT!"
The slap carried waves, clearing every recruit standing there except Lewin.
Kairo thought to himself, *You were the one who came to me though...*
As he flew mid-air, crashing into the wall while smiling, Tears streaked down his face as he grinned like an idiot.
Crash!
Everyone else was thrown in different directions. Takumi stood still, unmoved, as the will that kept him standing was the fact that Kairo kissed a girl before him—although that wasn't the case, but he didn't care. With a deadpan expression and visible question marks floating around his head, confusion and disbelief were written all over his face.
After a while and all the recruits came back together, Nevara stood there with her face blushing as she tried to talk. Lewin assisted.
"This here is Lady Nevara of the royal guards, and she's actually here as your main sensei, and I am the instructor helping her. As you can see, she has really bad eyesight, so please bear with us." Lewin finished his speech.
Nevara wasn't old. She was in fact the same age as Kairo and Takumi, 17 years old, but at that age she was already tier 4. The perks of being in a royal family: fast growth.
They began training their essence cores as all recruits sat on the floor with legs crossed, trying to maintain their essence as Lewin changed the room temperature by manipulating essence around them.
Hours passed and Takumi and Kairo still hadn't seen Itsuki. They told Lady Nevara, although she was too shy to look at Kairo, so Takumi did all the talking.
"We haven't seen him this morning, ma'am. We are worried maybe he has wandered off into the mountains or somewhere," Takumi said.
"Hmm, let me see if I can ask the guards to look for him," Nevara reassured.
Kairo had already begun looking, teleporting everywhere, searching for any sign of Itsuki.
Later on that evening, as the clock tower struck the midnight hour, moonlight streamed through the window onto Itsuki's empty bed. His things remained untouched, his practice garments folded over the chair where he had last placed them. A letter to his parents, half-written, lay across the desk, ink dry where his pen had paused in the middle of a sentence, and a face-down picture of all four of them, including Shion.
Kairo and Takumi sat down, unable to sleep, as they felt they were losing, or had even lost, another friend.