Chapter 4: Exam Begins
Silence filled the room.
Hidata and I remained in the same positions, facing each other across the cracked floor. He stood directly in front of me, his hand still resting on my shoulder.
Something about his presence made me uneasy.
I could sense the enormous energy radiating from him, but I couldn't determine its source. His ability remained elusive, hidden beneath layers of power I couldn't understand.
Whatever he possessed, I had never encountered anything quite like it.
Perhaps no one in this room could surpass him.
"Seems like I don't need to answer your question," I said, my expression remaining blank.
Hidata slowly removed his hand from my shoulder.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then I felt the energy around us shift.
He was absorbing it.
The energy in the air seemed to flow toward him, gathering around his body. I couldn't tell whether he was drawing power from the room itself or extracting it from something I couldn't perceive.
Before I could figure it out, he moved.
His fist struck my stomach.
"ARGH!"
The impact forced the air from my lungs. I staggered backward, clutching my stomach as pain spread through my abdomen.
What the hell was that for?
"You should learn to show me more respect," Hidata said.
His eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made me feel like prey being watched by a predator.
I struggled to straighten my back.
"What was that for?" I demanded, still trying to understand why he had attacked me without warning.
"The test has just begun."
I looked at him.
"The test?"
"Yes."
I glanced around the room. The floor had already collapsed in several places, leaving us standing on what remained of the intact surface.
There was no professor, no visible exit, and no sign of the other students.
Only Hidata and me.
Then I understood.
"You're saying the test is to injure your opponent?" I asked. "Since we're the only two people here, we're supposed to fight each other?"
Hidata smiled.
"You're beginning to understand."
I slowly lowered my hand from my stomach.
So this was the test.
A fight in which we had to demonstrate our abilities by attacking one another.
I gathered the energy surrounding me, allowing it to flow through my body. My red air shadow stirred beneath my feet, spreading across the floor like a pool of crimson smoke.
I could feel my power responding to my thoughts.
The stronger my concentration became, the more clearly I sensed the energy around me.
Hidata watched without interrupting.
"Looks like you want revenge for my attack," he remarked.
I raised my eyes toward him.
"Perhaps you're the traitor here. You're the one turning a potential friend into an enemy."
For a moment, he stared at me.
Then he burst into laughter.
His laughter echoed through the room, filling the empty space between us.
"Atsuko, listen carefully. An enemy can become your friend, and a friend can become your enemy."
His expression gradually changed.
"People care about themselves more than they care about anyone else. They pretend to value one another, but when something important is at stake, many will abandon their friends without hesitation."
He paused, his eyes never leaving mine.
"The world revolves around money. It turns people into beasts, making them forget the true value of life. They chase wealth and power until they no longer care about the people standing beside them."
He stood approximately six meters away from me.
I clenched my fists.
"Why should I believe you?"
My voice grew firmer.
"Integrity and loyalty aren't measured by money. People can overcome difficult situations through perseverance, strategy, and ingenuity. We don't have to betray one another just to survive."
I took a step forward.
"If you treat your friends like enemies, eventually they'll see you as a curse that needs to be removed from this world."
Hidata's smile widened slightly.
I couldn't tell whether he was amused by my answer or disappointed in it.
Either way, I had no intention of letting him continue treating me like a punching bag.
I charged.
My feet struck the floor as I accelerated toward him, gathering enough momentum to deliver a powerful punch to his face.
Six meters.
Four.
Two.
My fist was almost there.
Then he disappeared.
I stopped short.
There had been no visible movement, no clear indication that he had dodged. One moment he was standing in front of me, and the next, the space he occupied was empty.
I immediately sensed his presence behind me.
I turned.
My red air shadow spread across the floor, rising around my body to form a protective barrier. The crimson energy absorbed the force of an attack that would otherwise have struck my back.
The impact sent me flying several meters away.
I landed on my feet, though the force pushed me backward.
I needed distance.
Whatever Hidata was doing, I couldn't predict his movements. If I stayed too close, he could attack before I had enough time to react.
I pushed energy beneath my feet and launched myself into the air, creating more space between us.
It was a reasonable strategy.
Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem.
Hidata appeared in front of me.
Then beside me.
Then several meters away.
He moved so quickly that it looked as though he could teleport from one location to another without effort.
"You seem curious about my teleportation," he said, smiling. "But you're mistaken."
He tilted his head.
"I'm not using any technique. This is simply what my ability allows me to do."
His smile changed.
It became sharper, more unsettling.
He looked like someone who had already decided how the fight would end.
I steadied myself.
My red air shadow remained active, its crimson surface shifting across the floor beneath me. At the same time, I began preparing my Ferem.
I needed to concentrate.
If I could gather enough energy and direct it properly, perhaps I could create an attack powerful enough to catch him off guard.
I charged again.
This time, I moved faster.
I focused on the distance between us, preparing my fist as I approached. Hidata raised his arm, seemingly ready to block my punch.
Exactly as I had expected.
I adjusted my movement at the last moment.
Instead of relying entirely on my fist, I shifted my weight and prepared a kick aimed at his face.
My foot connected.
The impact was clean.
For a brief moment, I felt the satisfaction of landing a successful hit.
"Well, looks like I'm winning," I said with a grin.
Hidata's head had turned slightly from the impact.
Yet instead of showing anger, he smiled.
"You shouldn't celebrate too early. You'll only disappoint yourself."
Something about his response made me pause.
Then I noticed it.
The figure I had kicked remained in the same position, but something was wrong with its appearance. Its outline flickered, as though the air around it were distorting.
I turned my head.
Hidata was standing approximately ten meters away.
Uninjured.
My eyes widened.
What?
The figure in front of me wasn't Hidata at all.
It was an illusion.
I had attacked a false image while the real Hidata remained safely out of reach.
But how had he created something so convincing?
The illusion hadn't merely resembled him. It had moved as though it were a real person, responding to my attack with believable timing and movement.
I had mistaken it for the real thing because every detail seemed correct.
Hidata tilted his head.
"You should be more careful."
Before I could respond, he charged toward me.
This time, I could feel the energy gathering around his fist.
It wasn't simply a physical attack. The force seemed to pull the surrounding air toward him, creating a powerful current that followed his movement.
I tried to raise my defense.
Too late.
Pakk!
His fist struck me.
"ARGH!"
The impact launched me several meters through the air. My body hit the floor, and pain spread through my face and upper body.
For a moment, I could barely move.
I lay there, trying to catch my breath.
Then I heard footsteps approaching.
Hidata appeared in front of me.
"Then?"
I looked up at him.
"What then?"
I pushed myself off the floor and struggled to stand.
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he walked toward me at a relaxed pace, as though we were having an ordinary conversation rather than fighting in a room designed to test our abilities.
"I'd like to know more about you, Atsuko."
I stared at him.
That was unexpected.
After everything he had done, he suddenly wanted to know more about me?
I gave him a small smile.
"Why are you interested in me?"
His expression changed.
For a brief moment, the smile disappeared from his face.
"Interested? In you?"
He seemed genuinely surprised by my question.
Then he shook his head slightly.
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
I blinked.
Was he serious?
I had asked a perfectly reasonable question. Why did he look as though I had misunderstood something obvious?
Still, the exchange left me with more questions than answers.
Hidata studied me for a moment.
"Atsuko, you possess abilities that I don't have. Likewise, I have abilities that you don't possess."
He glanced at my red air shadow before looking back at me.
"But from what I've observed, you're not strong enough to fight someone like me yet."
His words irritated me.
Not because I thought he was insulting me, but because I couldn't dismiss what he had said.
He had defeated me repeatedly without appearing to use his full strength.
Meanwhile, I had struggled to land a single successful attack.
And even when I managed to hit him, I had only struck an illusion.
What exactly was I missing?
"What do you want to know about me, Hidata?" I asked.
He laughed.
For once, his expression looked almost playful.
I still wouldn't admit that he was more handsome than Akemetsu or me, but I had to acknowledge that his bright blue eyes and well-defined features made him difficult to ignore.
He seemed to know it, too.
"I want to know how you use your Ferem."
I frowned.
"My what?"
"Your Ferem."
I stared at him.
"Ferem?"
He sighed.
"You're not familiar with it?"
"Should I be?"
Hidata looked at me as though he had just discovered something astonishing.
"Ferem is the ability to command things through your mind. You think of what you want to happen, direct your mental energy toward it, and attempt to make it happen."
My entire body went still.
Command things through my mind.
That was exactly what I had been doing.
The ability that had allowed me to stop the bus. The power I had used to control my own movement. The force I had been struggling to understand since arriving at Kenzetu High.
So that was its name.
Ferem.
I had been using this ability without even knowing what it was called.
But if Hidata understood it so well, why was he telling me that I had been using it incorrectly?
"Why are you asking about my Ferem?" I said.
"Because you're using it the wrong way."
My forehead creased.
"Wrong?"
Hidata nodded.
"You shouldn't rely on Ferem when your opponent is within ten meters of you. At that distance, a moving opponent can make it difficult for you to concentrate and direct your command effectively."
He gestured toward the space between us.
"Your ability requires more than simply wanting something to happen. You need to understand how to direct your energy, when to use it, and how to avoid wasting it."
I considered his explanation.
It would explain why my commands sometimes worked and sometimes failed. I had been relying on concentration alone, assuming that if I wanted something strongly enough, my ability would respond.
But perhaps there were rules I hadn't discovered.
Rules that other people at Kenzetu already understood.
"So you know nothing, Atsuko?" Hidata asked, laughing.
I glared at him.
"Don't make it sound like I'm stupid."
"I'm not saying you're stupid."
He smiled.
"I'm saying you have a lot to learn."
I looked away for a moment.
I didn't like admitting it, but he was right.
I had entered Kenzetu High believing that my ability was something I could understand through trial and error. Yet every encounter seemed to reveal another layer of complexity.
The red air shadow.
The strange behavior of my Ferem.
The bus spell that I had somehow managed to overcome.
And now, Hidata was telling me that I had been using my ability incorrectly from the beginning.
How much did I still not know?
Then he spoke again.
"That's why I like having you here."
I turned toward him.
"What?"
His expression softened, although I couldn't tell whether he was being sincere.
"I'd like you to become my friend."
I stared at him.
After punching me, deceiving me with an illusion, and explaining how badly I had been using my own ability, he wanted to be my friend?
Was this his idea of making friends?
He continued speaking before I could respond.
"And I'll keep fighting you. I'll teach you how to use your abilities properly, even if it takes until the very last—"
He stopped.
For the first time since our fight began, Hidata seemed reluctant to finish his sentence.
I watched him carefully.
"Until the very last... what?"
He didn't answer.
The silence returned, settling between us like an invisible barrier.
And suddenly, I had the uncomfortable feeling that Hidata knew something about my future that I didn't.
Something he wasn't ready to tell me.
Something that might explain why he had chosen me.
Or why he wanted me to grow stronger.
I tightened my fists.
Whatever his reasons were, I wasn't going to let him keep me in the dark forever.