Inside a semi-large room that resembles a modern bunker; there is one large table with only two chairs. Atharv is seated in one of the chairs. He sits there gawking at his palms, he appears extremely sad, his eyes dead, wearing a blue cadet-uniform.

A few minutes later Parav enters with another man in toe. The other man is carrying a suit-case like bag with him and is properly dressed. The man wearing the suit hurriedly approaches Atharv and shakes his hand.

“Morning Atharv, I’m your counselor Brij Bhalla”, he speaks in a polite tone.

Atharv shakes his hand innocently; following him Parav offers his hand for a shake. But as they shake hands Parav presses Atharv’s hand hard almost breaking it, Atharv gives out a painful shriek.

Scoffing at Atharv’s expression Paras then lets go of Atharv’s hand, holding his wrist with the other hand Atharv tries to comfort himself as he shrugs.

“Weak, extremely weak. You’re lucky the General didn’t assign you to me,” Parav speaks with a contorted face.

Brij feeling sorry for Atharv, intervenes and asks him “If you could please sign these papers, with this you’ll officially be one of the applicants for the ‘Aegis Corps’. “

Atharv slowly moves his hand and carefully signs with his hand which is still in pain.

“Brij here will help you out in case of any trouble, he’s the counselor allocated to all the students and applicants in the academy”

“Students?”

“Jeez! You haven’t told him, anything commander?” Brij exclaims. Turning to Atharv, “See Atharv as you might know that a ‘Kusokan’ usually awakens his/her ability by the age of 10-12, so the kids who come to this facility have already been learning and honing their ability for years. So you’re actually pretty late. The batch that you’ve been put in is the 114th squad. They’re in their final stages and will be soon allowed to join the corp. So what they’ve learned in years you have to catch up in two months’ time right?” looking up at Parav.

“Right. I don’t know what the General is thinking, letting this idiot join the academy and providing protection to his pest of a family”

Atharv instantly stares at him.

“Oh, angry are you! What are you gonna do about it? Remember this and remember this well if it was in my hands I would have preferred killing you and to be done with it”

Brij again intervenes trying to diffuse the situation, “Well so who’s Atharv been assigned to?”

Parav looking away answers coldly, “Kashvi”

“That delinquent…” Brij immediately put his hands on his mouth before the rest of the sentence could pop out

“Who’s the delinquent, Bhalla?” a woman’s voice takes everyone by surprise.

Everyone’s attention turning to the woman standing at the door, with her shoulder resting on the door’s edge staring with steely eyes at Brij Bhalla. She has light brown eyes and black hair with a sharp face. Her hair is short and she stands tall with a sleek physique.

“Oh, I was referring to someone else commander…” Brij mutters while smiling but his face clearly showing the fear he’s feeling.

Kashvi turning her attention to Atharv, “He’s the one?”

“Yes, Kashvi let me introduce you to your protégé this is Atharv Arya, and Atharv this is your teacher and Commander of the North-western Front.” Atharv nods lightly, not caring much.

“Then you can follow Kashvi to her quarters and start your training you don’t have much time.” He remarks with a sly smile.

***

Kashvi and Atharv walk down a corridor.

They turn and enter a small room that looks like a classroom.

“Well, Atharv I don’t believe in these gimmicks so I’ll call you by your name. Is it okay?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good, take a seat”.

Atharv sits at one of the desks while Kashvi remains standing.

“So we’re stuck together for two months now, and I’m supposed to bring you up to speed which in all honesty, is impossible but we’ll just focus on what’s important and leave the rest to luck. I went through your grades and ‘Sustenance report’, nothing great, so I guess you aren’t that smart?”

“No, I’m not”. Atharv replies smiling looking embarrassed.

“But you see, you’re quite a special case Atharv, there hasn’t been a single Kusokan who has awakened his/her abilities this late. Hence the General personally asked me to shape you into a good soldier, given I’m the best he has. It’s for me to decide if you awakening late is an advantage or a curse. But you’re not a soldier so all I’m going to do is teach you to survive. Any questions before we move on?”

“My family? Will I see them?”

Kashvi letting out a sigh, “Well see that’s not in my hand but you need to do well here if you want to get back because that’s the only way you can get back. Are we clear?”

“Yes”, Atharv replies softly.

“Good, now you’ve given a written detailed account of your Awakening, do you remember the entire thing play in your dreams?”

“My dreams?”

“Not really. I didn’t remember anything and it all came back to me suddenly, when I was approaching those boys, I didn’t even know what I was planning to do. It felt as if my body and mind were not working cohesively.”

“Lately what have you been dreaming of?” Kashvi asks seriously.

After a long pause Atharv answers,

“Old memories.”

“What you experienced is called a ‘Passive Deja-Vu. Do you have any idea how a Kusokan’s ability works?”

Atharv nods denying any knowledge.

“There are primarily two types of Kusokans an ‘Enhancer’ and an ‘Emitter’. ‘Enhancers’ are further sub-divided into ‘Strength’ and ‘Speed’ type enhancers. You are a ‘Strength type’ which is the most common attribute amongst primary Kusokan abilities. ‘Emitters’ are also further divided into two categories namely; ‘Particle Emitter’ and ‘Energy Emitter’ the latter being the rarest of the four primary abilities.”

“How is this possible? I was an ordinary Human yesterday and now I’m a Kusokan. How could I have all this strength buried inside me? I’m physically extremely weak, always have been.” Atharv asks looking a little confused.

“Body is not the only source of strength. The most powerful thing that a human or a kusokan possesses is the brain. Real strength comes from the brain, in more than one way. You see dreams are like a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious mind. What a ‘Passive Deja-vu’ does figuratively is that it lets you peek into the future in your dreams. Since it’s a dream we forget it as our conscious brain doesn’t record dreams.”

“Why do we forget it? If I could have…we could have remembered it we might be able to alter it or prevent it from happening.”

“The Conscious brain doesn’t record dreams because then the mind would not be able to differentiate between dreams and memories threatening your ‘Real Existence’. That is why these dreams are recorded in the subconscious part of the brain over which we have no control.”

“When you witness the event in reality it all starts coming back and you feel like you’ve already lived through it. That is when a dream becomes a memory. This feeling of Deja-vu is what triggers a Kusokan’s ability awakening. As for the difference between a human and a kusokan, biologically there is none. The only difference is our brainwave signatures and of course the use of our abilities.”

“So Kusokan’s can look into the future?” Atharv enquires.

“Unfortunately no and maybe for our own good. ‘Passive Deja-Vu is experienced only once by a Kusokan. There aren’t any records of a ‘Passive Deja-Vu occurring more than once on the same subject.”

“But why isn’t this information public? If it was I could have maybe av…”

“Avoided it? That’s why it isn’t. No matter how much humans detest kusokans they’re addicted to us. They blame us and worship us. So the primary interest of any ‘Elected council’ is to increase the Kusokan population. And anyway which human wouldn’t want power.” Kashvi interjects.

Atharv looking at his feet, “I wouldn’t.”

“Well I don’t know if it’ll make you feel better but even if you knew about it’s not possible to have been able to avoid it, so rejoice,” Kashvi speaks with a tinge of excitement.

“But you just said…”

“Not making it public is just a preventive measure but the reality is that it’s not possible to avoid it. How would you know which dream it is and more importantly how do you know that you’re experiencing an awakening when you have no memory of it?”

No response came back for some time. Then breaking the silence Atharv speaks up.

“Why can’t I use it now?”

“You don’t have a ‘Familiar’.”

“A what?”

“Familiar is the environment which a kusokan uses to draw the bridge between his conscious and sub-conscious but before I get to what a ‘Familiar’ is you need to know that a Kusokan’s existence is divided into two halves; the first one is your ‘Real Existence’ which is what you are now and the second is your ‘Potential Existence’ which is what you’re capable of but haven’t yet realized it. You always need to keep balance otherwise if you bite more than you can chew it’ll hamper your body.”

“You’re confusing me now.”

“My bad, I keep forgetting that you’re a neophyte. Look around your surrounding Atharv and observe it carefully. What do you see?”

“I see the classroom, the chairs, the …”

“You’re seeing the universe which is perceivable to your eyes. You see matter and energy as it is but there’s much more to this universe. Human eyes and ultimately the human brain can perceive only 5% of the universe. In the remaining 95%, there are things beyond the comprehension of the human mind to which it cannot react nor feel its presence. This is where Kusokans and humans are different. A Kusokan’s brain can perceive around 9% of the universe which is why we manifest these abilities. Due to our superior brains, our body and mind constantly react with ‘Zega Particles’. These particles are what give a Kusokan its powers. Zega particles are everywhere around us and they can be controlled and used using brain impulses. Every living organism’s brain is constantly giving out these impulses in the form of waves but the ‘Zega Particles’ can only be summoned when brain waves are of a particular frequency. To use your ability you need to reach this frequency and then the Zega will be at your beck and call.”

“Based on what you told me, doesn’t that still make us human? I mean the only difference is that …” Atharv points out.

“That difference is more than enough for humans and kusokans to kill each other. Tomorrow I’ll be demonstrating fundamental Zega particle manipulation. We’ve done enough for today.” She ends the class in a hurry, a subtle expression of fury visible on her face.

Story by: Four Eighty One

Updates Every Friday.