“Are you leaving any time soon?” Luna queried as she walked into the warehouse, S1 right behind and holding red, plastic bags in both hands, filled with unidentifiable things. If you’ve got a servant, might as well use them.

“Why are you asking?” I pulled up my head from my phone, where I was sitting on the sofa, to the duo. When Luna said she would go out to buy something, she didn’t seem to care that I would be left here all alone at her place.

“Because your presence unnerves me and I find you intimidating,” She replied in a flat tone. While I couldn’t see anything, I could hear the sounds of rustling plastic behind me.

“Ouch. I guess I’ll leave, then,” I replied, not moving an inch.

“Seriously; I can’t have you stay here the night otherwise I’d be charged for kidnapping.”

“Relax; I’ll leave soon.”

“You don’t have a reason to stay; school’s already over,”

“Well, before you leave, let’s talk about what we’re doing next,” She sat herself down on the sofa, as this whole place was severely lacking in chairs. Figuring out I should actually care about what she was going to say, I sat up properly and put my phone away.

“I want to maintain momentum; after getting S1, I think it’s about time to obtain another heart--a stronger heart, this time.”

“It’s only been a couple of days and why does the heart have to be stronger? Why can’t we stick with weak ones.”

“Look at S1’s spec,” She gestured behind her to S1, who was currently storing food into the fridge and drawers. She turned towards us, hearing her name, but turned away after a wave from Luna. “Let’s be frank; it’s not that useful-”

“To you, maybe, but she’d make a killing in forensics.”

“Hmm, yeah, but that’s not exactly a field where it’s easy to gain more hearts in. What I need is someone who can fight so I can get stronger hearts because a stronger heart comes with a stronger spec.”

“Why do you think the strength of a spec correlates with the strength of a heart?” I asked.

“It’s an educated guess; S1-” She glanced behind her towards the servant, “Can tell you more.”

“S1?”

“Yes,” She replied, putting everything down and turning around to face both of us, both hands clasped in front of her. “The System Specialisation of a hive is what you refer to as an ‘aspect’. A System Specialisation that doesn’t confer any strength to a hive isn’t a very useful, therefore strong, Specialisation.”

“So, through induction, a strong hive would have part of its strength constituted from a strong aspect or spec?” I asked, making sure we all had the same understanding.

“Unfortunately, yes. Now, S1, I love you and all but you’re really weak so don’t take it badly when I say we need someone stronger.” This three-way conversation was making me feel a bit awkward, having to strain my neck weirdly to look at S1.

“I endeavour to make myself stronger for my master.”

“I envy you,” I directed my hard gaze towards Luna.

“Yeah… Well, as I was saying, I’m planning on tackling an intermediate-strength hive. Will you join me?”

“I was under the impression that we’d only be tackling weak hives when I said I’d join you.”

“I never explicitly said anything about weak hives-” She began.

“But they’re the only hives you can handle without a team,” I interjected. “And that’s only if they’re small, as well. You’re getting ahead of yourself if you want anything stronger.”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she was clearly, visibly ruminating over my words. The eagerness to her eyes vanished.

I was all for clearing hives but I valued my own life; I had only encountered two hives so far and one of them barely even qualified. The other one… I wasn’t any weaker than I was then but that hive was far and away out of my league.

Furthermore, there’s the issue of whether the G.U.G. would even qualify just the three of us to tackle anything stronger than a weak hive. With my eyes darting over to S1, calmly waiting for her Luna to speak again, I wondered whether she’d actually count as a person.

“Then let’s do this;” Luna began, her tone confident like she knew exactly what to do, “We’ll go to the G.U.G. and register, then we’ll join a team for an intermediate-strength hive to see what it’s actually like. You fine with that?”

An intermediate-strength hive… That would pay a lot of money for clearing it out, even if split into a large team. It’d pay much better than any job I could get for relatively little work, as well.

“I can do that.”

Expectedly, however, it wasn’t that day when we would leave. Now that we had finally settled upon a plan for the immediate future, Luna was antsier about pushing me out of the warehouse and I didn’t really have a reason to stay for much longer; it was beginning to darken and I should really get home.

I managed to find my way home the same way I did to get to the warehouse but doing so takes time; by the time I was finally in a familiar neighbourhood, it was unequivocally dark out and the street lamps were lit up, the sodium-induced light illuminating the streets in an unnaturally bright way.

With slow, methodical steps, I walked my way up to my front door, inserted the key, and opened, thankfully, without much sound.

Inside, the lights were turned off and the familiar noise of the television was nowhere to be heard.

With each step I placed gently down on the stairs, I could clearly feel my heartbeat, nervous for even slight creaking emerging underfoot. However, I managed to make it upstairs without excessive sound.

No light emanated from under any doors, nor did any sound permeate through the walls. It was eerily, and totally, silent.

When I awoke the next morning, neither of my grandparents said anything about my late arrival yesterday, nor did they seem to be aware of my truancy at school. They were both their usual apathetic states in the morning, my grandmother making breakfast while my grandfather not helping and instead, just lounging about lazily.

For once, I was grateful they didn’t take an active interest in my life.

School, like yesterday, was boring. The only saving grace was I just had three lessons in the morning that day. Normally, there was a rule I thought nothing of which dictated that, even if you have no more lessons, you must stay in school until the end of the day. I was fine with that--I spent most of my time in school reading anyway--but, now, when I had something better to do--something much more fulfilling and productive than fruitless education--it felt like a vice-grip on my freedom.

I couldn’t help myself; I just left. Like yesterday, I walked out the building and that was that. The boredom, the aimlessness I was beginning to feel during the lesson, chewed and ate away at me for those three agonising hours; it was all I could do to attend all three and not leave any sooner,

Additionally, there was a frightening chance someone would talk to me about my absence yesterday. Getting out sooner meant avoiding that.

And so, I left.

Similarly, it turned out Luna was home this time as well, apparently waiting for me.

“Don’t you have school?” She asked as soon as I walked in, not giving me any time to think about it. She was lounging lazily on the sofa but dressed similarly to how she has been the past couple days; a tank-top and trousers (sans coat since she was indoors).

“Yeah,” I replied instinctively.

“You’re just not going?” Her tone was devoid of emotion; I couldn’t pick up how she would feel about me skipping.

“You don’t have to go when you have no lessons.”

“Ah. Well, anyway, you ready to head out for today?” She asked, not wasting any time over my answer.

“Is S1 coming with us?”

“Yep! It’d be good if we can register her as well.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here; we still need to do that first.”

“It’ll be easy!” She practically jumped up off the sofa. “Now, come on; let’s go.” With that, she grabbed her coat, wrapping herself up warmly. Conspicuously, S1 was wearing the exact same shorts and t-shirt as she was yesterday, as well as not wearing a coat even for this cold weather.

“Don’t you get cold?” I asked her?

“No. I find myself relatively unaffected by external temperature.” She replied, her tone smooth and rehearsed. She had such an unnatural cadence of speech it was like she was reading off a script.

Just like that, soon after having found myself at my expected destination, I was already up and leaving, not having any time to rest my poor feet.

Surprisingly, Luna seemed to know exactly where she was going. She walked with a brisk pace like a determined, purposeful woman who had places to go. Comparatively, it would’ve taken me an inordinate age to find my way over to the G.U.G. building through my idiosyncratic but rather inefficient method of following the future.

“How do you know where to go?” I asked Luna while we were walking our way there. By now, we had managed to get to the more central, busy part of the city rather than the suburbs where I lived or the industrial part where Luna resided.

“I’ve visited many times before. Not inside but I’ve observed it. I even saw when it was being built.”

“You sound quite interested in the place,” I asked.

“Of course I am; it’s completely unexpected for me; even more than the hives.” Why wouldn’t she expect a government response to the hives?

“Unexpected?”

“Yeah; it was unexpected. I can’t expect everything like you.”

“I can’t expect everything,” I retorted, having not expected her to turn the conversation in that direction.

“Not with that attitude. Anyway, we’re nearly there.”

The building was huge, standing several stories high and built not with clearly defined stone bricks like many of the buildings here but a more modern slab-like design, looking seamless and smooth. Compared to the archaic architecture besides it, it looked futuristic where, in fact, it was just modern.

It wasn’t my first time seeing this building, no--we had a television, you see--but it was most certainly the first time I was gazing upon this edifice in person and that’s a whole other experience. There was something imposing, something majestic, against this behemoth. Maybe not travelling much and exploring different places gave me a rather limited view of the world but it was a truly awesome building, in the most literal sense of the word.

Where we entered was a reception area though, unlike a hospital or clinic, without the many seats dotted about the place. I suppose there weren’t enough people to warrant long wait-times.

As we waited at the desk, we could see a few people sitting at computers and some more walking around, messing with different machines. They were each wearing the navy-blue, respectable-looking uniform of G.U.G. employee with the red shrug indicating what their job is.

Upon seeing us, a man quickly made his way over, putting down whatever he was holding in the process.

“Hello. How may we help you today?” He asked, standing behind the counter.

“We’d like to register, please,” Luna replied. Standing stiffly and completely unprepared to even open my mouth, I was grateful she was able to speak so smoothly.

“Okay,” He began typing at the computer, “Yep; we have an open slot with Nathan Jones; he’ll be appraising you if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s fine.”

“He’s just through that door, room twenty-four.”

The door he pointed towards was to our left and through it was a long corridor that bulged in the middle to accommodate chairs. Room twenty-four was near the end. It was all very white, clean, and clinical. I felt like walking through a hospital.

Upon knocking, a youthful-looking man with brown hair, blue clothing, and a green shrug opened the door. Though he looked young, his eyes were anything but soft.

“Three of you? Well, it’s one at a time so decide who’ll come in first.”

“Are you okay with going first?” I asked Luna quickly, not allowing her to get a word in.

“Okay then.”

“You’re decided. Come in.” He held the door open for Luna but closed it as soon as she stepped into the room.

I was left with just S1, sitting on some chairs, waiting for Luna to reappear.

“Do you know what’ll happen?” I asked S1 not because I thought she’d know but more because I was bored.

“I do not.” And she said nothing else.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a tremendous amount of time before Luna exited the room, which I suppose was to be expected.

“Charlotte, it’s your turn,” She said to me.

“Why not S1 before me?”

“Ah; it turns out, that because I summoned her, she actually doesn’t count as someone that can be registered.”

Hearing that, begrudgingly, I made my way into the room.

“You’re here. What’s your name?” He asked briskly, not looking at me but at papers on the desk.

“Charlotte Flett,” I replied a little quietly, sitting down on a chair close by.

“And date of birth?”

“The 12th of January, 2001.”

“Okay, Charlotte. You’re here to register?” He was staring at me now, engaged.

“Yes,” My voice was a little uncertain.

“Do you agree that in order to be registered, any information you provide during registering may be seen by others?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Okay. So, firstly, to establish some things, when did you get your system?”

“Twelve days ago.” I answered, feeling slightly uncomfortable with such a personal question.

“Now; when you gained your system, that wouldn’t been when you were in a hive. What do you know about the hive? The strength, the size?”

“I don’t know anything.”

“What about the aspect of the hive?”

“I don’t know that either,” I was becoming less and less confident by the second.

“Okay...” He wrote something down with each of my answers. “Now, can you tell me the name of your System Specialisation?”

“B-Blossom of Fate,” Why ask for the Specialisation and not what it does? He began searching for something on the computer.

“Blossom of Fate… It’s not on the system; you seem to have a rare one. What does it do?”

“It allows me to see the future.”

“A precognitive ability... That would explain why it’s rare. What’s the time frame; how far into the future can you see?”

“I can see things up to an hour but any longer than that is more like a vague feeling. I haven’t really tested for things further into the future.”

“I see. Is it controllable?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Are there any limitations apart from the time-frame?” He was constantly writing down my responses to his questions.

“I can’t have it active for long and it only allows me to literally see the future; I can’t hear the future. I can’t see the future if I don’t have a line-of-sight, either.”

“I see, I see… Finally, do you have any combat capability?”

“N-No, not really. I’m quite weak.” He didn’t ask a follow-up question. Instead, he was just writing something that I couldn’t see for five minutes. It began to get quite awkward, the silence.

“Okay, Charlotte Flett. The appraisal is finished and once you’ve handed this in back at reception, you’ll be officially recognised as an E-rank user.”

“Why E-rank? Isn’t that weak?” I tried to not come with any expectations but being called weak straight to my face… It’s not like I can do anything about it!

“Physically, you’d qualify for F-rank since you’re functionally harmless but generally, a precognitive ability raises you one rank, placing you at E-rank.”

“Isn’t there a way to raise it higher?” I pleaded, unwanted emotion seeping into my tone.

“Not unless your Specialisation gets stronger and they can only do that when they explicitly say they can get stronger. Does yours say that?”

“No...”

“Then, you’re an E-rank. Charlotte, it’s not that bad a thing, however. A precognitive Specialisation is a rare enough thing that any team would want you, regardless of your ranking. You can most likely find a job with the G.U.G. as well.”

“Okay...” I managed to mutter out, completely enervated.

“Here; your papers. Hand those in and you’ll receive your identification” He handed me some sheets I couldn’t bring myself to look through.

With that, I left the room.

“How was it? You seem sad.” Luna asked me immediately once I had made my way to her.

“It was fine, I suppose.”

“It clearly wasn’t if you’re that unhappy with it.” She needled.

“I’m just… Disappointed, I guess.”

“Disappointed? But why? You’re registered; that means you can officially clear hives now.”

“What rank are you?” I decided to change the subject.

“I’m provisionally D-rank,” She said with a smile on her face.

“Why provisionally?”

“It all depends on my limitations and servants. One servant is too few to make a conclusive judgement.”

“So you’re still stronger than me...” I sighed.

“What? What rank are you, then, Charlotte?”

“Only an E-rank.”

“Oh...” It was like she was expecting higher. “Well… It could be worse.”

“He said I’m physically not even E-rank. I just got special treatment.” I sat myself down on the chair, tired.

“Charlotte,” Luna gripped my shoulders. “Don’t think of yourself as weak. You said you can fight; he probably just doesn’t realise how strong you actually are.

“Think about it; if you worked out, trained yourself, and became physically strong, you’d undoubtedly be able to beat me in a straight fight.”

“I suppose...” You have a point.

“Charlotte, how about this; let’s go look for a weak hive right now and clear it.”

“A weak one?” This roused my attention. “I thought you wanted to find an intermediate one?”

“I’ve changed my mind. I was aiming too high. Let’s go for a weak one.” She had such a confident tone, admitting her faults. I wish I could be like that.

“Okay. Sure. Let’s go clear a hive.”