Chapter 4 - Cute Girls are Kinda Cute

The bus doors opened and some more people made their way on. Unfortunately for Veil, he was absolutely paralyzed by the massive infodump that Nano had just given him. She was nearly going on for 19 minutes. Luckily for him, he was able to nab most of it; however, he'd probably have to revisit it at some point.

Unfortunately for him, because of his massive brain stretch he found himself lacking. Someone tried to sit next to him! Luckily, before they succeeded, he was able to stuff himself by crossing his legs and half standing as close as he could get to the window. Sadly, the bus was rather short. As a result, he found himself staring straight down at the passenger sitting right next to him.

It was a mistake. Sitting next to him was a rare woman. She had long blonde hair, styled into a ponytail down the right side of her neck, leaving it wide open. Her plain t-shirt was fully closed off., showing her more traditional nature. but she was also wearing some shorter jean-shorts, and her long, elegant legs bespoke of a secondary and different state of being. To mark it off, her well-rounded upper half did not match with her more diminutive frame.

Veil looked at her face and nearly gasped. Her sense of style and state of being was near perfection itself. While she was unlike the love of his last life, she looked just as perfect- if only in a different way. Suddenly he gripped the seat hard.

He found himself trying to move between the pain of the position he was stuck in and pain of the jeans that he was also stuck in. 'Damn!' He thought. The girl next to him giggled at her phone.

Luckily, the bus was near his exit. After about 3 minutes of pure, unrelenting AGONY, the doors opened. Luckily, she picked up her bags- this was her exit too. Right as she was about to get off- he saw her smirking. "Miya Krushnikov, little freshman. Catch me if you can." All of a sudden, she disappeared, with only the wind ruffling through the bus as acknowledgement that she had been there. Soon, that left too. 

Unfortunately, as he was contemplating her departure, the doors closed. 'Mother of all Sheetrock of a Holy Stock!' he thought to himself. Internally cursing with many subprofanities, he went to the back of the bus. Right as the driver was about to pull away, he popped open a window and jumped out. Normally, this would be impossible, but he was in a 13-year old body. He could fit. He had an issue getting his backpack through, but he managed to manage it. Mostly. It was a little louder than he expected. Luckily, there was nobody sitting in the back. The bus drove off like nothing happened, so he assumed he was in the clear. Next stop, Miller Hall! ...Unbeknownst to him, a cute blonde on top of the building he was next to was rolling on the roof laughing.

The entrance to the school, albeit being a side entrance, was still dazzling. There were various buildings made of white brick stones off to the side. The path forward was made of two different sidewalks, one for either direction. In between them was a large, grassy median with trees planted every 5 meters or so. But it wasn't like his last life at all. No, the grass was a blueish-purple and the tree leaves were a soul-stirring pale blue. The trunks were made of crystal, and the roots seemed to be seizing the ground itself.

Albeit the fact it wasn't dark yet, there were golden and purple lightbugs moving within the leaves. There were also a strange species of birds living in them; they seemed weird even to the unobservant eye. They looked like a blue jay, but had purple lines on their eyes instead of black. After closer observation, Veil realized what he was missing! They had hands.

Surprised at the sheer beauty of the path before him, Veil stepped forward. It appeared that class had just gotten out. Foot traffic was heavy. But to that point, he saw no Spirit Allies! On the bus, he had seen a few. There was an older lady with a fluffy white spirit cat, and a young man with a strange expression carrying a cranky jackrabbit with a stalk of wheat in its mouth on his shoulder, It looked angry. As soon as he saw it, Veil made sure he was 5 seats away.

But there weren't any on the path itself. 

Veil prepared his way towards the college dormitory labelled, "Miller Hall." The heavy foot traffic did not affect Veil much as he slipped through holes in the crowd with ease. If there's anything he learned in his last life, it was how to slip around- as a slave, he had to be on his toes at all times. Not just from the overseers- but also from those around him. The fickle ones who snitched, all for a mere extra bowl of food.

As he slipped through yet another near-impossible collision, he stopped on the grass to gain his bearings. "Miller Hall, Miller Hall..." Veil looked around but didn't see any signposts. He stopped in the grass, pulled out the Bamphone and typed into Nano's CLI. "Take me to Golden Alliance College Miller Hall." With his newfound guidance taking him to his next location, Veil made an about turn and slipped into traffic once more.

Every now and then he'd see someone flying overhead. What was a surprise to him was that nobody on the path had a spirit companion out and about. All of the people he saw in the air were using them, however. This did make sense as the paths had so many people for being so narrow. But for such a rule to be followed by every student, it bespoke a certain pride into the school. Well, either that or an absolutely abominable discipline department.

Eventually he got to his destination. A big sign on the building was clear. It read, "Miller Hall."

'Thanks, Nano.' He thought internally. He enjoyed being an honourable man inside his brain. 'Do a good deed daily.' He also thought.

Walking through the hall, it was less busy than it was outside. After a couple minutes, checking the more obvious possible locations, he found that Miller Hall was the building dedicated to the Space affinity. At about the three minute mark he found what he was looking for. The platinum plaque on the door read, "Space Affinity Dean, Miller Hall: Richard Jamieson."

The door was open. Veil saw that there was an older man behind the door. Assuming it was Richard, he stood behind the door. Safely hidden from the hall, he took off his ring and shut it. "Hello, Mr. Jamieson." Veil spoke. "I was told to come find you, but I can't let anyone else know that I am here."

Richard looked at him with a small smile hovering on the edge of his lips. "You must be Vivian's son."

"That's correct, sir; how did you know?" While in the body of a child, Veil had to treat older individuals with the proper respect; otherwise, it wasn't seemly, and could get him into trouble.

"Your face. Your nose and eyes are just like hers, and your smile is just like that rascal Dale's." Richard seemed to roll his eyes. "I heard that Julian was supposed to be accompanying you. Where is he?"

"That's the problem, Mr. Jamieson. I'm not quite able to trust him any more, and as far as I'm aware, doing so could cost me my life. He wants to kill me for some reason as yet I'm unaware of."

"HE DARES?!?!" Richard's voice got much deeper at this point. His booming shout echoed throughout the building. 

'Yep, definitely on my side.' Veil thought. Richard's anger was definitely NOT being faked. 

Veil stayed silent, After a short while, Richard's facial expressions went softer. "What can I do for you?" He asked.

"Right now, I'm just trying to awaken. I've completed my high school material, but I won't awaken until the age of 16 or so. Right now since I'm only 13, the easiest way for me to do so is an awakening stone. My parents left me a message and said to talk to you about that. They said Julian would bring me, but now that I can't trust him, I had to come by myself. I'm hoping that I can stay invisible while I'm here. The less people that know where I am, the less cameras that know- the better."

Richard stayed silent for a second. Then, he slowly started to speak. "Let us get you awakened first. If you keep yourself concealed then I can take you over to the stone. When you're done we can figure out the next few steps."

Veil put his ring back on. Immediately, he turned invisible. "Works for me." Richard simply stated, and then the world went dark. For a split second, Veil lost all sense of direction. But then the world came back- different than before. He was in a small room. There was no light apart from a tiny candle.

"This is the secret space we have for awakening new individuals. Without the coordinates, nobody can steal the awakening stone. As such, the entirety of the school is a safer place." Motioning to Veil's location, he said: "There is a camera up and to your left. Come, put your hand on the stone."

Veil walked over and outstretched his palm. Then, the world faded into blackness.