"Well, I hope I never see you again" - Hitagi said as she grabbed her stuff and left the train.

Kyoku, who had grown immune to her antics in the short while they had spent 'talking', didn't really care. - "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say"

Hanging his backpack from his shoulder and grabbing his suitcase, Kyoku left the station in hopes of finding the bus that was supposed to take him to Aoi'mizumi. Looking around himself, seeing the people walk by hurriedly, Kyoku realized the magnitude of his situation.

Everyone around him was living a life ruled by society, walking aimlessly towards their assigned tasks. They didn't live their lives for themselves, but for society's needs. The boring monotony of such a monochromatic lifestyle made Kyoku feel saddened. To think that most people lived, grew up and died without knowing the freedom of following their own wishes, and the fact that he would've been like that too, made him realize that he was quite lucky.

For whatever reason Gaia chose him, he was granted the opportunity to live a life worth living. A life that seemed bright, full of color. A life that, at some point, he thought would be comparable to the stars he so much loved seeing.

"What do you think you're doing?" - he heard Hitagi say. Unknowingly, in his moment of absent-mindedness, he had grabbed on to the handle to get on the bus headed towards the Academy.

He looked at Hitagi, who had done the same thing as he had. Realizing that the coincidences were too many, he asked the most pertinent question in that situation. - "You're going to Aoi'mizumi too?"

Hitagi looked at him with a incredulous look on her face, but it disappeared in the same split second it appeared. She opened her mouth and shot him a classical snarky reply. - "Great, now I'm attending the same school as the weirdo"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, miss 'I don't need help'" - Kyoku replied, sending a low blow to Hitagi in hopes of it stopping her from replying. And it seemed to have worked, since she only glared at him but showed no signs of replying.

The trip to the Academy was short lived, lasting a mere twenty minutes. Kyoku was used to taking the train to school, so traveling a few more minutes towards the Academy wasn't a bother to him. Luckily, Hitagi kept her persona up for the entire trip, avoiding any kind of interaction with him -and everyone else-.

Gazing through the window of the bus, Kyoku felt amazed at their surroundings. They were approaching the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a 58 hectares garden that dated to the times of the Naito clan before falling in the hands of the State after WW II. The place was humongous, to say the least, and it had a lot of mixed flora. European and Japanese variations of different plants, together with foreign and national species, were all found in the same garden.

As they approached, Kyoku finally understood why the place was called Aoi'mizumi.

'It's literally because of the blue lake' - he thought as he stared at the buildings that he was sure composed the most prestigious Arts Academy in all of Japan.

It was a mix of classical european architecture with a touch of Japanese details, like a Torii, the classical stone road that went into the garden and the bridges that ran over the small streams that were all over the place. His first impression of Aoi'mizumi was quite simple, but he was still impressed enough to voice it loudly without thinking. - "This place really is massive"

Alas, not everything was as simple as he thought.

Barrier detected.

Do you wish to enter?

[YES] [NO]

Of course Kyoku chose not to enter the Barrier. Whatever it was, he would have time to check it later. That did bring him back to his current quest. The only requirement he had left -that he could control, at least- was to to use his Create ID skill, which was supposed to create an Instant Dungeon inside of a barrier created by him.

As smart and wise as Kyoku thought himself to be, his teenage curiosity got the best of him. Apparently, Gamer's Mind didn't stop the 'harmless', stupid thoughts that a teenager could have.

Using Create ID, Kyoku saw a screen appear in front of him. It had only two options to choose from. One being 'Empty Barrier' and the other one 'Zombie Dungeon'. Now, creating a Dungeon with monsters seemed like the most attractive option, but Kyoku had enough clarity in his mind fart to think it through. As such, he decided to create the 'Empty Barrier'.

Another pop-up appeared after he selected that, asking him if he wanted to emulate his surroundings or make a blank space. For the sake of appearances, he chose to emulate his surroundings.

As soon as the pop-up disappeared, Kyoku felt a sudden shift in space. Looking around himself, nothing had changed. The only big difference though, was that there were no people with him on the bus. It was an extremely weird experience, and one he thought would be very useful later on. Luckily or unluckily, his barrier was broken and he found himself back in the bus with everyone else. Nobody seemed to have notice what had happened, and he quickly learned why.

I might've given you your powers,

but create a Barrier in front of common people again

and you are dead. They must never find

out that The Abyss exists.

Next time, I won't camouflage you.

'Well that went better than it could've' - Kyoku thought as he finished reading Gaia's message, making a mental note to never again create a Barrier where normal people could see him.

Unknown to him, Hitagi was looking at him like he was crazy, looking at the same place for a long time and then suddenly opening his eyes as if something bad had happened. Still, she decided to ignore him. After all, he was one of the few people who bounced her venomous words straight back at her.

'At least I got a hundred XP for that' - he thought, resuming his gazing of the outside world after checking the Tutorial quest. The nature surrounding them was one of the things Kyoku loved the most. He felt free, being away from big cities and urbanization. - 'This... might've been just what I needed'

A couple of minutes and they had reached the entrace to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. There stood a woman wearing a business suit composed of a white shirt, black dress pencil skirt and black overcoat, which complemented her good figure. She had long black hair tied in a low ponytail that reached her waist and brown eyes. The air she carried herself with was one worthy of royalty, and the seriousness shown in her face was enough for Kyoku to understand she was not someone who would take kindly to pranks and cheeky replies.

As they approached her, she directed her gaze to Kyoku and opened her mouth. - "I'd recommend you to never again make a Barrier in a public bus, Izumi-kun. It may easily backfire"

Kyoku understood from that two different things. She was part of the supernatural side of the world and she had to be a teacher at Aoi'mizumi Arts Academy. That proved to him that the Academy wasn't as normal as people thought and the other thing he cared about.

'They probably admitted us in the Academy because of our powers' - he thought while looking towards Hitagi, then back to the woman. - 'But how do they know of our powers when we barely know them?'

Kyoku decided, at that moment, that he was done acting like the small fish in the pond. If everyone already knew who he was and possibly his powers, he would just use them however he saw fit. No use in trying to hide something that everyone already knows you have. Thus, he used Observe on the black-haired woman.

Name: Chifuyu Orimura

Alias: Unyielding Sword

Level: 75

Guild: JRA

Guild Rank: General

General Information:

A woman born in a family of prestige in the Japanese side of the Abyss, she was trained to be the perfect swordswoman. She has been part of an experiment before that augmented her body's physical capabilities. She is a workaholic and currently working as a teacher in Aoi'mizumi Arts Academy. HP: 500/500

MP: 545/545

MP Regen: 50/m Stats:

STR: 74 (+20)

VIT: 73

AGI: 95 (+20)

INT: 82

WIS: 100

CHA: 51 Equipment:

Head: Cheetah's Hairpin of Speed

Chest: Grey Business Overcoat

L. Hand: Hawk's Ring of Sight

R. Hand: Rhino's Ring of Strength

Legs: Black Pencil Skirt

Feet: Black Dress Shoes Total XP: 6,568,440

XP to next Level:

16540 / 264000

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 0

And that answered every single question he might've had about how they knew about his powers. She was literally 71 levels above him, and according to the information of her Guild, she was only a General. In the split second it had taken him to check her Status Board, Kyoku thought of how to deal with such a character. He could act like he usually would towards a teacher or someone 'above' him, with respect. Or he could make a stand. He could act and show that he was not someone they would be able to manipulate, pressure or use however they saw fit.

'I won't have my freedom robbed from me' - Kyoku thought before lifting his suitcase and walking towards the entrance of the Garden. Looking at her, he apoke in a calm and relatively cold tone. - "I already got the memo from Gaia, Orimura-san"

Chifuyu, upon hearing his words, was extremely surprised. If what he said was true, that meant that Gaia communicated with him, something that very rarely happened. And there had been no records of Gaia ever warning someone not to use their powers in front of the mundane, which meant that he was favored by her. But she caught on to another small detail in his speech.

"When did I tell you my name, Izumi-kun?" - Chifuyu asked while looking him in the eye, his figure approaching her with steady steps.

Izumi didn't stop walking and only answered when he was passing by her. - "You haven't, Orimura-san"

As Izumi walked away from the scene, Chifuyu remained still, pondering on the situation that had just happened. There was someone else though, that wasn't happy at all with the situation.

'It would seem like I'm suddenly an extra' - Hitagi thought with a tinge of bitterness in her voice, only to try and talk herself of it. - 'Not like I care, this works in my favor'

Unknown, or perhaps not, to everyone in the area, a black cat was looking at it all happening with a weird glint in its eyes. It was as if it felt amused by the situation. When Chifuyu sensed something looking at her and looked over, the cat was already gone.