Zero Evaluation Pt.1

It wasn't late.

School had ended a little early that day. Like all buildings in Luminocity, the school had a mystical air, with giant statues and paintings adorning the crimson carpeted hallways. In the middle of the school complex, a huge fountain with sparkling water produced water shows that would make any lake or river jealous. The students were no different, each with their extravagant appearance and interesting plot.

However, there was one exception:

With a stiff, robotic gait, a young man between 17 and 18 years old decided to go straight home. There were a thousand and one activities available at school, but stricter than his gait was only his daily life.

Every day seemed the same for the boy. A true walking bore — the king of anticlimax.

Invisible among the sophisticated and flashy crowd at the magic school, Zero, in his discouraged posture, was so slow that even his shadow no longer had the patience to follow him.

Even so, there we were, following the kid from a safe distance.

No thoughts circled his mind; on the contrary, a tremendous emptiness spread from his head to his stomach. A loud rumbling sounded in his belly, the first sound to come out of his body since the yawn he let out when he woke up.

With rhythmic, silent steps, the boy positioned himself in front of a vending machine. A sea of colorful packaging possibilities presented itself: Finally, he was forced to decide.

Until then, he hadn’t made a single decision or taken any action that wasn’t at least partially passive.

In the morning, the butler — the same one who had previously pursued Zero — not only woke the boy up, but also dressed him. Breakfast had already been pre-selected, and the boy ate without even adding sugar to his coffee. Well, at least they didn't have to feed him too.

Dressed in a beautiful leather school uniform, Zero was taken outside by the butler, who shoved the boy toward the school, letting inertia do the rest.

"Have a good day of study, Mr. Zero!" said the butler, after setting his body in motion.

During his classes, he didn't take any notes, his eyes fixed more on the blackboard than on the teachers — he didn't even blink. His bag had no notebook or pencil case, just a sweater in case he felt cold (which I doubt he could feel).

During practice class, I couldn't find Zero. In the vast courts and state-of-the-art facilities, the students were practicing athletics, fencing, and hand-to-hand combat, but Zero was engaged in a much calmer activity — taking a nap. 

I found him still in the classroom, not even snoring, his pale skin making him easily mistaken for a corpse. No one had called out to him, directed him, or even noticed he was missing from class.

His interactions were limited to apologizing for an occasional bump or a simple “I don't know” when asked a question, the subject not mattering much. That's why we hadn't even discovered his name. It would have been easy if he had any friends, but no, he didn't talk to anyone — or rather, he hardly spoke at all.

"Humph... noble scum doesn't even bother to behave properly around us."

"He’s so strange. He’d rather stay by himself than talk to us."

"The nobles must hate him too, to keep him here. He’s definitely a bastard."

Sometimes there were one or two mean comments — always related to the surname Zero and the weight it carried. I don't know if he didn't hear the whispers or didn't care, but no emotion showed on his unchanging face.

I didn’t really understand where Zero stood socially, but it was obvious he was stuck in a limbo. He wasn’t noble enough to be respected, nor common enough to be accepted. I hate politics, so I decided to think more about it later.

Well…If I were in my old entity state, I would have been bored, but as a soul, following Zero was a task that required a high degree of focus. In that damn place, several of the students turned their necks and checked their surroundings every time we moved.

Necessity was just an opportunity for creativity. Squeezing between walls and water pipes, we quickly discovered that the best approach was just to watch from afar — it wasn't pretty when we hid in the pipes under the bathroom.

The conclusion was that almost everyone had their third eye partially open — how much was still a mystery, and since he didn't even speak, there was no reason to want to watch closely.

Given how uncomfortable it was to watch that boring life, worse even than...

...a mosquito trying to get into your ear at night.

Humph... I like it, Tadashi, you're getting much better!

Considering all our efforts, it was good to reach a situation where we could get some kind of reaction from that zombie kid.

Analyzing the vending machine, his hollow eyes calmly scanned the price list until they reached the lowest number. It was what I expected. Although nothing happened, my curiosity was at its peak. It was interesting to see a soulless body — I realized that the very principle of that form of life was the law of least effort

The body chose the minimum in all situations. No wonder he slept so much.

Tadashi was so quiet, as he was on his endeavor, our chain stretching to its limit while he scanned other parts of the landscape. While I observed the boy, he would try to pay attention to the details of this world. If we were going to possess someone, we would have to have a decent repertoire of knowledge.

If two minds were available, there was no point in both focusing on the same thing.

Tell me, Tadashi, what have you discovered so far?

I'll be secretive and save it for the next chapters... but I must say, I heard a lot about our nightly show.

My God, did someone hear our karaoke last night?

I’M TALKING ABOUT THE LIGHTS IN THE SKY, SHI-NII!

Right. Since souls don’t sleep, every night we ended up talking about light novels. Yesterday’s highlight had been our singing — we realized we would never again be able to see anime openings with their wonderful songs, so we decided to sing in honor of our memories.

It wasn’t exactly an a cappella performance of quality, but at least I had an excuse — as a skeleton, I didn’t even have vocal cords.

We’re spirits, neither of us has vocal cords. But I must admit, it’s impressive that even as a soul I can still sing off-key.

Although I love talking with you, Tadashi, I fear that in this brief moment without descriptions, Zero had already left. Not that it was a problem — after all, with just a few days of observation, I had already memorized his routines.

After arriving at his house, he would train at the request of his grumpy... governess? I didn't find out who she was, but from the amount she yelled, she had some power over the kid.

Training with an old man, who was so fit and huge that he almost tore his floral shirt, Zero exhausted his remaining hours, heading for dinner and then straight to bed.

We had never directly watched the training, only catching glimpses through the cracks in the windows when the wind pushed aside the huge curtains. Entering the house was complicated, since once again, we didn’t know who might see us.

This time, however, it was still daytime, so Zero was training outside, his master watching from a distance while sitting on a beach chair, a alcoholic drink resting on the armrest.

Repeating the same sequence of movements and defenses with a sword, Zero's eyes did not follow his movements, keeping them fixed ahead. His master watched everything from afar, his somewhat futuristic sunglasses clashing with the old and beautiful style of the mansion.

The man, despite his age, was a powerhouse. Although immense and strong, he didn’t exactly seem like the best of masters. Dressed in shorts and an open floral shirt, he seemed more relaxed than serious about training the boy, but I couldn’t blame him much.

I’m no sword-fighting expert, but it was obvious Zero had no talent at all. I had only ever met one person worse than Zero with a sword…

Okay, I’m not even going to try defending myself here.

I mean, in a way, it’s kind of impressive to be worse than someone who doesn’t even have a soul.

Please, stop trying to fix the situation… it’s only making things worse.

Saving myself from getting into even more trouble with Tadashi, a high-pitched, somewhat irritating voice caught our attention:

"What kind of slacking is this? I already think these clothes are ridiculous, but this posture is unacceptable."

It was the governess. 

Wearing a long dress, knee-high socks, bracelets, and a scarf, the woman created an image of complete restraint, covered from head to toe. Tall, her naturally upturned nose reached high with her chin raised. Her brown hair was tied — or rather, imprisoned — by an elastic, contrasting with the master’s long, loose gray hair.

“Yaaawn.… It’s all a technique. The idea is to awaken a sense of injustice in the student. Seeing me relaxing while he has to train, he’ll learn to maintain concentration even with mixed feelings.”

"Technique, really? You know him; he probably doesn’t even remember we’re here," the woman complained.

"What count is the attempt, isn’t it, Maddie? You try to get rid of me behind my back and fail, but in the end, we all learn something. Even if my psychological techniques don’t work on him, it’s still good to know how to handle a sword with the sun blinding your vision."

"Don’t call me that. You’re no longer my master to order me around like I’m inferior," she said, crossing her arms.

"I’ve never treated you as inferior; you’re the one who feels that way."

A clash of gazes began. A light brighter than the sun reflected off the dark lenses of her sunglasses, and the woman released a violet energy across her entire body — it was magic.

Using Tadashi’s third eye, borrowed for a moment, I could see they were about to attack. Finally, some action! Tadashi and I hid behind a tree, gatecrashing what was shaping up to be an incredibly interesting subplot.

"Hey, careful with that hand, it’s touching my butt," I complained, trying to cover myself on the skinny oak.

"What butt? It’s just bone there, buddy!" Tadashi retorted, also trying to watch the scene without being seen.

Without realizing it, we lost sight of the boy, his sword left on the ground.

"Huh…" we only heard a murmur behind us.

"Ehh??" We both looked back, coming face to face with a pale, empty figure.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"