The Exam

April 7, Year 2058.

In the house of the Takashi's, a 15-year-old girl was sleeping peacefully in her room.

Knock-knock~

There was knocking at her door. A woman's voice was heard from the other side.

"Kimiko, wake up, it's time for breakfast."

She said.

"Nghh..."

Kimiko woke up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes before lifting her head off her pillow.

"I'm awake..."

She replied. Kimiko got up and opened the door, her mother standing in front of her.

"Go down and eat some breakfast, I have to go to work early. Be sure not to be late for your first day. Also, don't forget to bring your insignia."

"Alright..."

Today was Kimiko's first day of high school. She is going to the National Magic Virtue Institute, a school known worldwide. It is ranked second in the top 10 national schools.

After Kimiko had finished breakfast, she took her navy blue school jacket off the chair and wore it. Since she was a first year, her uniform was navy blue. Second years have a red uniform and third years have black uniforms.

Kimiko fixed the Insignia on her hand and walked towards the door.

The Insignia is where a mage stores their weapon. When they want to summon it, they take their Insignias off and the badge will form into a weapon that's suited for them.

"Bye dad, I'll see you soon."

"Mhm."

As Kimiko left the front door, she looked up into the sky and saw a tilt-rotor aircraft in the sky above their house.

`Mom only uses that when she's going somewhere, that isn't school. Where is she going?`

Kimiko thought as she watched the aircraft fly off into the distance.

"Kimiko."

Standing at the front gate was Misha and Sakura. Kimiko waved at them and walked towards them.

"Let's get going."

They all nodded. Kimiko, Sakura, and Misha all go to the same school. The institute is located north of Tokyo, so they took the bus there.

After a ten-minute ride, they arrived in front of the school gate. As expected, the school was pretty large. As they walked through the school path, everybody recognized Kimiko.

"Isn't that Kimiko? The daughter of the headmaster?"

"Hey, she was in my school last year."

"Isn't she an A rank?"

"She is, but after she takes the exam, she'll probably become an S rank."

"That's a probability."

Kimiko's mother is known as the headmaster of the school. But her daughter is even more famous as she excels in everything. Math? English? Magic? She always gets straight grades like her older brother.

"Isn't her brother Kenji?"

"The one with the weird eyes?"

"Weird eyes? More like terrifying. Did you guys see the video of him destroying that guy? That was sick!"

Kimiko's smile turned into a frown. Reminding her of Kenji makes her start remembering that Kenji wasn't here with her. After Kenji had slaughtered the molester, the video of him doing went viral and now it's all over the world. Even though it was last year news, it's still relevant to this day.

Everybody noticed Kimiko's mood and immediately changed the subject.

"Ignore them Kimiko, your brother is doing ok."

Misha said as she tried comforting Kimiko.

"I know, I just wish he was here."

Sakura and Misha looked at each other and sighed. As they entered the school, Sakura asked Misha and Kimiko.

"Where is your exam held?"

"Mine is in class 1-B."

"Mine is class 3-C."

"Mine is in the gym."

"After we're done, let's meet at that cafe I was talking about earlier."

They then parted ways, Sakura went down the hall, Misha went up the stairs to the third floor and Kimiko went to the gym.

The gym was filled with desks and chairs. Kimiko searched for her seat, which was in the first row. As she sat down, the person next to her had dropped their eraser. Kimiko reached for it and handed it to the person next to her.

"I think you dropped this."

"....T...thank you..."

The shy girl said as she took the eraser. She had white hair, hair as white as snow. Her eyes were the color of ice and not only that, her skin was pale.

Kimiko inspected the girl. Judging by her appearance and the aura she was emitting, she was probably born with the ability to use advanced ice magic. Ice magic users have a change in their appearance that helps adjust their body temperatures so they may use ice magic. However, if they encountered someone that can use fire, they will immediately become weakened. So in order to resist fire magic, their body temperatures will have to be sub-zero level.

Kimiko glanced at the ground, which was emitting a cold mist.

"Umm, may I ask your name?"

She asked the girl. The girl shifted her head.

"... Lucia... Yamato..."

"Yamato? Are you related to the famous weapons manufacturer, Vin Yamato?"

"... yes, I am his granddaughter..."

The girl nodded and said in response.

"So, if you're his relative, why are you wearing a misfit uniform?"

Kimiko said as she just realized that Lucia was wearing a white uniform. All students from every year have different uniforms, however, for misfits, they wear a white uniform. Instead of their uniform, their tie shows what year they are in. So first-year misfits will have navy blue ties, second-year red, and third-year black. They say each year that only two misfits will appear in this school. And Lucia was one of them.

"... medical reasons..."

`Medical reasons?`

Kimiko thought as she scratched her chin. She reached in closer to Lucia, and she felt a sudden chill go up to her arm. Kimiko immediately brought her hand back.

`I see, she must have Overfrost.`

Overfrost is a rare disease that only exists in someone that uses ice magic. Overfrost doesn't affect the host, but they cause the host to emit a subzero atmosphere that has a 1-meter radius. The aura won't affect its surrounding areas that much, but when it comes in contact with another mage, then they will be encased in ice if they stay too close to her.

"A-anyway, nice to meet you."

Lucia looked at her and nodded while wearing a cool expression.

Ding!

The chime for the exams rung and everybody who was standing up sat down. The first exam was a written exam that tests your intelligence.

2 hours past...

After the intelligence exam pasted, it was time for the strength test. The strength test will be measured with a punching machine. After that, the agility test where everybody will be graded on how athletic they are. The last test will be the mana test. Well, not really a test. Everybody's mana level will be measured using a small energy measuring device. It will grade the examinee's mana level from F to S. And of course, the potential grade will be the grade that they got when they were first measured. It is optional for people to retake that test again if they want. In this case, Kimiko wanted to take it again.

A few more hours had passed and Kimiko had finished the exam.

As she was walking towards the cafe that her friends had talked about, she took a look at her results.

[Strength: A]

[Agility: A]

[Intelligence: S]

[Mana: S]

[Potential: S]

[Overall: S]

`Alright. My overall grade is S.`

Kimiko kept scanning the paper.

[Class: 3-A]

Her classroom was going to be on the third floor. The first years have the third floor while the third years have the first floor. Obviously the second years have the second floor.

Kimiko arrived in the cafe and her eyes met with Misha and Sakura.

"So what did you two get?"

Kimiko asked them.

"We both got an A rank. You probably got an S rank if we're not wrong."

Sakura answered.

"Y-yeah..."

"Well, it's not like we're jealous of anything. The highest grades always get the most attention."

"You'll probably get the top rank tomorrow."

"Yeah, anyway, what class are you guys in?"

"We're in 3-A."

"Wow, looks like we're in the same class."

"Of course we are, nothing is going to separate us."

They all chatted and laughed until midnight.

After that, they went home. Kimiko waved Misha and Sakura goodbye and entered her house.

"Dad, Mom, I'm home!"

Silence. Well, as expected since she came home late. But something was wrong. Whenever she comes home late, her mother would scold her every time, but today, her mom wasn't home.

"Where could mother be?"

She went into the kitchen and found a cup noodle on the table and some boiled water. There was also a note written in her dad's handwriting.

[Too tired, cook some cup noodles for today. Also, your mother won't be coming home today. From Dad.]

...

"Well, at least something else than cup noodles would've done well. Tch, if only I learned to cook."

Kimiko shook her head and went to take a bath. After she took her bath, she went to her room and went to sleep.

The next day, she went up to check where she was ranked on the ranking board. She was in 7th place.

"What? Kimiko isn't first place?"

Sakura said behind her.

"Well, not everybody is perfect Sakura."

"Who's first, I wanna see."

"Well, that's kind of going to be a problem."

Kimiko looked at the top of the ranks. There was no one ranked first, only someone in second place.

"Is this even possible?"

"How is there no first place?"

"Maybe it's an error?"

There was a commotion going on. Why is there no one in first place?

Chufchufchufchufchuf~

That was the sound of the blades from a helicopter. Everybody stared up at the passing aircraft in the sky, which landed on top of the building. When it landed, Kimiko's mother, the headmaster, stepped out of the aircraft with one more figure.

`Mother? And who is...?`

There was a man in a black trench coat wearing a mask that covered his nose and mouth. He had two long bangs that covered his eyes.

However, something on his left ear caught Kimiko's eyes.

"O-"

It was a silver earring with a snake eating its own tail. An ouroboros.

"Onii-chan?"

Maybe the man heard her, or maybe he just wanted to look at everyone because as soon as she said that, he turned his attention at Kimiko.

His icy-blue eyes glared at everyone. A dark aura leaked out from behind him.

.

.

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