DAYS

Four days had passed since the Orientation ceremony. Kain was constantly on edge for something to happen, but it seemed like everything was normal. There were no fights, nobody calling out Kain for being a fake, and no word from either Sarah or Elais. That last part, Kain did not like. He was told by Sarah to just stay put and wait, but he could not just sit idly by and wait for the entire year. No, that was too much waiting. He had already waited months, and two random people declared that he would just have to stick it out for just a little longer? That didn’t sit right with Kain. Rika also seconded his opinion. Though, it could just be mistrust of the two. Another thing Kain found at his time from being here at the Academy is the sheer amount of boredom one could experience. Kain would have thought it to be at least exciting, full of people training on how to use their Virtues in combat, or anything other than practical lessons. Kain’s days were filled with studying history, mathematics, and Virtue Theory. The last of the three was mildly interesting, as it taught the ways to use different Virtues for different things. Not all of them included combat, as some could be used to improve daily life as well. Rika also attended this class with him, as well as his history class. It was in those two classes, as well as free time at the end of the school day, that he was able to see Rika. She too thought school was boring, and mentioned the tough time that she had been having with her math class. She always seemed embarrassed to admit her shortcomings, and this was no exception. It was obvious Rika did not attend school during her childhood, as she was severely behind in almost every department of education. Kain was saved from this embarrassment, as he could draw upon the memories of Marcus whenever he needed to answer anything. It seemed Marcus had a form of education during his childhood in Acres, but not all of his knowledge was sufficient. There were things Marcus did not know, and therefore Kain did not know as well. Kain’s luck ran out, however, when it came to history. He was not good at memorizing the dates and occurrences. Rika, on the other hand, excelled at history. She seemed to have a flawless memory, blowing away Kain and the other students in that class. Naturally, she was very smug at her ability and bragged whenever she got the chance. When Kain had enough of her obnoxious bragging, he would chop her on the head and threaten to make fun of her math scores. This always shut her up and gave Kain a chance to be smug. Another surprising occurrence was how quickly Rika made friends. She told him back when they were living in the slums that she had a deep distrust in people. If she changed, or if she was just pretending to be friendly, he did not know. One of Rika’s many friends, Ran, found interest in Kain when she saw them together. She would constantly make comments about his hair and eyes, how muscular he was (she had to be exaggerating, Kain wasn’t thin by all means but he wasn’t someone to stare at), and how kind he was to others. Her interest only deepened when she found out that Kain was a champion of Kindness, selected specially by Celina during the Holy Selection at the Garden. Speaking of Celina, Kain had not seen her since they parted by the elevator. She had promised to see them at Orientation, but they had not seen her there. Rika was beginning to worry, as they had grown to be really good friends over the time that they had spent together. Kain always reassured her that nothing bad had happened to her. She was a child of House Kindness, after all. Kain had also not seen Dixon or Nora, as well as any of their companions. Dixon he didn’t mind not seeing, as he was very loud and obnoxious. Nora’s absence, however, bothered him. She had unsettled him ever since she had declared her hatred for his “kind”, the Sinners. Kain did believe her when she said that she would kill him, and that’s why he was nervous of not seeing her. He could at least keep tabs on her if he saw her around. It was safe to say Kain was watching his back. Nothing else happened for three more days, however. It had been a whole week of boredom, and to Kain it was just short of torture. Kain had his eyes closed as he sat and rested on one of the benches along the path outside of the Academy. For every week, the students had one day of no classes. Basically, it was a free day. Kain was glad he did not have to sit through more classes, but he was also equally upset that he had nothing to do with his time. He did hear of a training facility located on Academy campus. Apparently people spared and honed the abilities of their Virtues there. Kain decided it would be cool to watch, but he did not want to go without Rika. She had made him promise that he would not go without her, and thus he waited. She apparently was out with her friends right now eating in the cafeteria. They had been gone for quite some time, and Kain was getting reckless. He might just go ahead and check it out, even if he had to deal with Rika’s complaining later. Kain leaned back even farther into the bench and sighed. How long was she going to take? While leaning back, Kain felt someone sit beside him. He didn’t acknowledge the person beside him, thinking it was just someone coming to sit on the bench. “It’s not polite to ignore people.” Kain opened his eyes to see a familiar face. “Oh Sarah, what's up?” Kain straightened his posture, looking at the girl beside him. “Nothing. Anyway, come with me. You asked me at Orientation to train you, so I’m doing just that.” Before Kain could say anything in response, she shot up and grabbed his arm. “Now let’s go.” She pulled his arm, yanking him off the bench. “Hey! What’s the rush?” Sarah wheeled back angrily to face him, but seemed to change facial expression when about to say anything. She sighed and said, “It’s a lot to talk about. For now, just follow me.” She started off. Kain sighed. He had nothing better to do, so he followed her. She was walking briskly, almost like there was no time to waste. What could she possibly be so worried about? Sarah led him through the Academy gates and past the main building. In the distance, Kain saw an arena type building in a valley beneath the hill. A path stayed toward the entrance, and he saw crowds of people all filing in and out of the facility. “What’s this place?” Sarah responded while walking forward. “It’s the training facility they have here. You’ve been here for a week and you still didn’t know that this place existed?” Kain bit back a more impolite reply, then said, “Yes, I did know that this place existed. I was waiting for–” Sarah cut him off. “Stop talking so much, focus on walking Kain.” Kain scrunched up his face in annoyance, but thought it better to just let it go. After a bit more walking, they reached the entrance of the training facility. There were double doors made of metal blocking the entrance, and a tiny black box indicating “scan here!” text. Sarah reached for her ID card and put it up to the scanner. Green light read the card for a moment, then a secondary light flashed green. A high pitched electronic voice chirped, “Welcome to the Bradford Training Facility, presented to you by Headmaster Berst Bradford!” A gear clicked, and the doors swung open to reveal a hallway leading to a large center area. On the sides were steps leading up into stands surrounding the center of the arena. There was a slightly elevated platform that spanned most of the length of the center area. There were multiple people practicing combat on the floor, some using only the power that their Virtue gave them, and some using steel swords and other weapons of that nature. On the far side of the platform, there was a rack sporting many swords, axes, shields, and weapons that looked like they were ripped straight from a storybook. Before Kain could ask Sarah about this, however, she was already walking away from the mass of people, nearing the edge of the platform. Kain was surprised at the size of this place, as a person could still be on the center ring and distance themselves a fair way from the center. Sarah stopped walking and turned to face Kain. “The first step is to control the power.” Kain was confused. “Wait, we’re starting right now?” Sarah sighed rather loudly and nodded. “Yes, if it wasn’t obvious. Now try to draw on Wrath.” Kain nodded. He clenched his fist and stanced up, concentrating on trying to draw the power that he felt that day. A second past. A couple more. The silence was eventually broken by Sarah chastising him. “This is sad, watching you try like this. To think you actually broke my arm.” She shook her head. “Watch how I do it.” She concentrated for a second, and Kain saw her eyes subtly brighten along the red in them. She looked back at Kain. “I’ll demonstrate what it does firsthand.” She coiled her legs and jumped straight up, going considerably high in the air. She landed with a thump back on the concrete platform. “Alright, now try again. Think of the time when you first activated Wrath.” “How do you do it? Maybe it’ll help me to know.” Sarah thought for a moment, then answered. “Well, I use it somewhat subconsciously now. But when I was first getting used to it, I just thought of something that made me angry.” Kain thought back. The only two cases of hatred that he remembered feeling were that time in the alley when Rika first found him, and the night around a week ago that he first met Sarah and Elais. He had been very stressed then, and he eventually almost tried to kill both of them. That’s when the power first activated. Kain furrowed his brow, trying to remember that time in depth. How he felt, how the power felt, and his mental state. He remembers how it almost slithered under his skin, a different feeling than the hunger he felt before. It was hot, searing, and urged him to attack. Actually, it just made him angry, more so than he had been in his entire life. Kain tried once more to call upon that power, reaching deep inside himself for that feeling. He thought he felt something stir, but that was about it. “I can’t,” Kain sighed. “I don’t even know what I’m reaching for.” Sarah stared at him, disappointed. “Well, we can’t just end training five minutes in. How about we put that aside for now and work on combat techniques.” Kain looked at her in surprise. “What do you know about fighting?” She shot back quickly, an edge in her voice. “Enough to humiliate you in a fight.” Kain did not doubt her, as he recalled the quick motions she had used to detain Rika and knock him out. What he was surprised at, however, is that what she was doing was an actual style of combat. She walked behind him and placed her hands on his arms. “Hey, what are you–” “Quiet. I’m just showing you a combat stance. Now, move your arms where I move them. Same for your hips and legs, too.” After some adjusting, Kain now awkwardly stood in a peculiar fighting stance. He had one leg in front of the other, one arm outstretched in front of him and his other slightly bent behind the first arm. “Could use some work, but that’s fine for now.” Kain looked embarrassed, as he felt like a fool for standing so weirdly. It did not help that some other students were looking at them occasionally as well. “This right here is called a ready position. You can dodge, throw kicks, punches, elbows, and knees, as well as accelerate quickly from this position. It was designed specifically for me by the Doc, but I guess it could work for you too.” Sarah adopted a more refined version of the “ready” stance. “Now try to copy some of my movements. I’ll work out some of the kinks after you attempt them. Ready?” Kain nodded. Sarah quickly extended her front most fist, and put her back leg in front while jutting out the elbow from the bent arm. Finally, she brought up a knee and jumped back. “That was a simple string of moves. A punch, elbow, and knee should be effective against most people here, especially when you learn how to enhance your movements with Wrath. Let’s work those three some.” Kain took a deep breath, and readied himself to strike. He balled up his fist and threw out a punch with his extended arm, brought it back while stepping forward for the elbow, but failed when throwing the knee. Kain lost his balance from the wild step and stumbled forward, resulting in a disapproving look from Sarah. “It was…passable for the first two, but the knee was horrendous. I could have taken advantage of your poor balance and won that fight. Now try again, but on me this time.” Sarah got in the “ready” pose, and braced herself for Kain’s strike. Kain threw out the first punch, but it was quickly batted aside. Sarah grabbed his arm and kneeled, tossing him over her shoulder. Kain landed against the platform with a “Oompf”, coughing as the wind was knocked out of him. “What…was…that…for?” Sarah loomed over him. “Since the punch was slow and sloppy, I was able to counter. Get up and try again, and make it faster so I can’t grab your arm this time.” Kain regained his footing and resumed the “ready” stance. Kain threw the same punch again, intentionally focusing to make it as fast as possible. Sarah simply moved aside, causing him to fall forward. Sarah stuck out her foot, causing Kain to trip and fall to his face. Before Sarah could chastise him again, Kain grumbled and stood up. Sarah readied herself in response. This time, Kain threw a punch slower than the last one so he could keep his balance, but still faster than the first one he threw. Sarah batted it aside like the first, but Kain was prepared for that. He stepped forward and threw an elbow in the same flowing motion that Sarah taught him. Sarah still dodged, but was wide eyed in surprise. Kain spun around quickly, thinking that a counterattack might present itself. However, none seemed to come. “That was impressive for a beginner.” Kain relaxed and raised an eyebrow, confused. “The way you predicted my movements was impressive. Very good.” Kain crossed his arms. “I didn’t do anything special, though. What’s impressive about it?” Sarah just waved her hand dismissively. “Nothing. Now let’s practice a bit more.” Around two more hours went by, and Kain felt exhausted. He had been beaten even harder ever since he decided to throw that elbow. Kain wondered if he should have never done that, as he maybe would have gotten an easier training session. Sarah didn’t even walk him out when they were done, either. She just stopped one second and curtly announced her leave and walked off. Seriously, what was wrong with her today? Kain stumbled up the hill, looking forward to a soft bed waiting for him in his room. He would just take a short nap until dinner. It didn’t seem too far off judging by the state of the sky, which was now a fading blue. Kain was still daydreaming about his awaited nap when he heard his name shouted from somewhere. “Kain! Where were you, I’ve been looking for you since an hour ago! Where have you been?” It was Rika, who was stalking down towards him. “We promised that we would check out the training center today, and when it is time you’re nowhere to be found!” She looked at him with annoyance, but that expression faded when she saw the numerous bruises that Kain had acquired during his session with Sarah. “What happened?” Kain sighed and looked up at her tiredly. “Nothing. Now, do you still want to head to the training facility?” She looked hesitant, and eventually shook her head. “No, I’m more worried about you. Let’s just relax today, alright?” Kain nodded, relieved. They walked back to the bench and sat down. The rest of the day, Kain and Rika both talked about their struggles, from the hard classes at the Academy to struggles with students. The day went on slowly, and ended with them going their separate ways. Kain headed toward his dorm, a solitary room on the first floor of the building. Kain closed the door and flopped on his bead, aching from his many wounds and scrapes. Kain was not too angry with his dorm, as it was nicer than the slums that he and Rika used to live in. Although the place was not as nice as Celina’s penthouse, it was still satisfactory. Kain was not one to complain when things were given to him. He closed his eyes, trying to drift off into sleep. The next morning marked the continuation of Sarah’s spartan training. Each day seemed more hellish than the last, causing Kain to have worse and worse injuries. Wrath seemed further away from attaining, as each time he tried to call upon the power it slipped away. Classes became harder, more effort required to be put into each subject. Another thing Kain was worried about was Celina’s absence. It had been nearly three weeks since they had said goodbye to her. Nora too was not seen, same as Dixon. Their champions seemed to follow the same degree of absence as them. Kain finally came to his third free day, and was taking a walk on the path around the school. It stretched exceedingly far, but no one regularly walked the lengths of it. Kain enjoyed the activity, as it was calming to him. He stared out into the meadow, feeling the wind blow on his skin. Kain then heard a sound. He listened more intently. It was almost as if the breeze was calling his name. “Kain!” His name was called out again, closer this time. He turned around to see a familiar girl running towards him. The breeze blew once again, as if bringing them closer together. Celina smiled at him, finally near enough for her to talk normally. “Kain,” Celina breathed heavily from running all that way. “Where have you been?” Kain asked Celina, hoping she would shed some light on her disappearance. “I’ll tell you later.” Celina looked at him seriously. “I have something important to tell you.” Kain grew nervous. Something about the way that she was looking at him made him worried. “It’s about your memories.” Kain’s eyes widened, and the world seemed to stand still.

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