Solstice watched the streets blur past through the passenger window of Kent's car, a sleek black sedan that probably cost more than his uncle's ramen shop made in a year.
Billboards towered over the moving traffic, flashing ads for energy drinks endorsed by famous Ascendants, training equipment for aspiring Prospects, and the latest dungeon raid documentary streaming on NetCore.
'Its been three months..' he thought. 'Its been three months in this body, and it still doesn't feel real.'
"So!" Kent said, breaking the silence with that familiar grin of his, "well, what do you think you'll get?"
Solstice blinked, pulling himself back to the present. "Hm?"
"You're aspect, man. What do you think you'll awaken?" Kent's hands moved animatedly even as he drove, one gesturing toward the radio where a news anchor was discussing yesterday's dungeon break in the northern district.
"I'm betting on something fire related for me since my mom's got fire and my dad got metal. It has to be magma or plasma or some crazy hybrid, right?"
Solstice allowed himself a small smile. Kent always talked like this, always confident, always excited, like the world was just waiting to hand him exactly what he wanted. Maybe for people loke him, it did.
"Could be," Solstice said simply.
"Could be? That's all you've got?" Kent laughed, shaking his head. "Come on, man!. This is the day. The evaluation is the thing we've been training for since we were kids!. You've gotta have some theory about what you'll get at the very least."
'Training since we were kids…,' Solstice repeated mentally.
Right..
The problem was that he hadn't been training since he was a kid. The original Solstice probably did, the quiet loner who barely spoke to anyone, who kept to himself in the back of every class, who somehow still managed to scrape by on pure observation.
Three months ago, Solstice, or rather, whoever he used to be, had woken up in this body with fragmented memories and a pounding headache.
The world had felt different, like a dream he couldn't wake up from. But he had adapted because he had to. Because in this world, according to what he learned, if you failed the evaluation, you didn't just lose opportunities.
You fell, quite literally!.
"I don't know, actually," Solstice said, keeping his tone even. "My uncle never really awakened anything, so I don't have much to go off from."
It was a safer answer. True enough that Kent wouldn't push further. His uncle, the old man who ran the ramen shop downtown and had taken him in as an orphan, was a good man, but he was dormant. Never passed his own evaluation years ago. Never got an aspect and never for once ascended above.
Kent's expression softened slightly, though his grin didn't fade. "Hey, doesn't mean you won't get something sick. I mean, look at Ren Kagami. Both his parents were dormant, and yet he awakened a spatial aspect at sixteen!. Now he's a B-rank Prospect working under Yuki Hoshino herself."
"Ren Kagami's one in a million," Solstice said under his breath.
"So? Maybe you're in a million, too." Kent shot him a sideways glance, his eyes bright with the kind of optimism only someone who'd never really struggled could have.
"You've always been weird, Sol. Quiet, yeah, but you notice things, don't ya?. That's gotta count for something, right?"
Solstice didn't answer because Kent wasn't fully wrong. Observing was the only reason he'd survived these three months without anyone realising he wasn't the original Solstice.
But noticing things didn't mean you'd awaken a powerful aspect. It just meant you knew how to stay out of trouble.
The car slowed as they hit another red light. A street vendor was selling grilled skewers on the corner, and the smell wafted through the half open window.
Solstice's stomach growled quietly, and he recalled he hadn't eaten much this morning. Mostly because of the fact that his uncle had been up late last night, muttering about supply costs and how the shop might not make rent this month.
"Speaking of weird," Kent continued, oblivious to the fact that Solstice was hungry.
"What do you think about Lira? You think she'll awaken something crazy? I heard her older sister got a healing aspect and went straight into the medical Ascendant track, but Lira has always been more…..agressive, you know?"
"She'll probably get something combat focused," Solstice said, though he wasn't sure why he thought that. The original Solstice had barely spoken to Lira, but he had watched her, not as a stalker!.
Everyone did. She was the kind of person who commanded attention without trying so hard. She was sharp, focused, and always the first to volunteer in combat drills.
"Yeah, maybe. God, I hope I don't end up in her group for the trial." Kent laughed nervously. "She's scary when she's serious."
"You'll be fine." Solstice said.
"Easy for you to say. You don't care about impressing anyone."
Solstice almost laughed at that. If only you knew..
The light turned green, and Kent hit the gas, weaving through the morning traffic with the kind of reckless confidence that came from knowing his parents could afford whatever fines he racked up.
The academy loomed ahead now, a massive complex of glass and steel that stretched endlessly toward the sky like a monument.
-THE ARDENT INSTITUTE OF ASCENSION-
A place where dreams were either made or destroyed.
"Shit! We're cutting it close," Kent muttered, checking the dashboard clock [8.54 AM].
"If we're even a minute late—"
"We won't be," Solstice said, though his pulse quickened.
They pulled into the academy lot just as the intercom speaker crackled to life. Solstice stepped out of the car, the cool morning air hitting his face as the announcement echoed across the campus.
"Attention all evaluation candidates!. The trial will begin promptly at 9:00 AM. Only those present within the main hall before this time will be permitted to participate. Latecomers will be required to wait another year. This is your final notice."
Kent cursed under his breath and broke into a jog. "Come on!"
Solstice followed, his legs moving automatically even as his mind buzzed with a thousand questions.
What am I doing here? What am I trying to prove?.
But he knew the answer.
He needed to know if this world was real and if he was real and the only way to find out was to ascend.
They burst through the academy's main entrance just as the clock struck [8:59]. Inside, hundreds of students stood in nervous clusters, whispering, fidgeting, glancing toward the elevated platform at the far end of the hall where the instructor waited.
Kent bent over, hands on his knees, panting. "Made it!, Holy shit, we made it!"
Solstice straightened, scanning the crowd. Faces he recognised, face he didn't and somewhere among them, people who would fail today. People who would be sent below.
The intercom crackled again in the haze of the commotion going on in the room.
"Welcome, candidates. Your evaluation is about to begin"
The room fell silent.