Three Steps Into The Unknown

The next morning brought a grey, listless sky, its clouds hanging low enough that the academy rooftops seemed to disappear into them. Shizukesa stood outside the main building, waiting for the others, though he had arrived early without meaning to. His body had woken before his mind, as if something inside him refused to let him sleep any longer.

The courtyard was unusually quiet. Even at this hour, students normally drifted between buildings in chattering groups, but today they moved in smaller clusters, eyes flicking towards him as they passed.

He felt the weight of those stares.
Not anger.
Not hostility.
More like curiosity pressed tightly together with fear.

Aki arrived first. She hurried across the courtyard, practically sliding to a stop beside him. “There you are. I thought you had vanished again. You do that sometimes.”

“I walked normally,” Shizukesa said.

“Yes, but you walk normally in a way that looks like vanishing.” Aki squinted at him. “You look pale.”

“I look like this every day.”

“You look more pale,” she insisted.

Rin joined them with a quiet, steady pace. “He is nervous.”

Shizukesa blinked. “I am not nervous.”

“You look like you are thinking too hard,” Rin replied. “Which for you is the same thing.”

Mira walked behind them, her expression gentle yet serious. “You slept lightly. Your wavelength feels thinner than usual. Like a line stretched too tightly.”

Aki clutched her bag tighter. “Today is his first special session. Of course he slept badly.”

Rin exhaled slowly. “It will be monitored. The Guildmasters are not careless.”

“That is what scares me,” Aki muttered.

Mira placed a hand on Shizukesa’s arm. “If anything feels wrong, speak. Even a flicker. Even a hum. Do not ignore it.”

He nodded.

The four of them headed toward the Guild Wing. The corridors were dim, the morning light barely reaching through the tall windows. Shadows stretched across the tiled floor like thin, unmoving rivers.

A sense of stillness clung to the air.

Like the academy itself was watching.

They were led into a chamber Shizukesa had never seen before. It was circular, much smaller than the Council hall, with stone walls carved in spirals that resembled petals caught in slow motion. A light filter overhead cast a soft white glow, bright but not harsh.

Two Guild instructors waited inside. One belonged to the Insight Band, wearing their silver-trimmed uniform. The other wore the deep blue of the Lotus Circle.

Shizukesa took a quiet breath.

The Insight instructor stepped forward. “Hana Shizukesa. This is your first session. It will be brief. We are only assessing stability, not ability.”

Aki whispered behind him, “That sounds worse.”

Rin murmured, “Be quiet.”

Mira stood beside the door, hands clasped lightly. She was allowed to observe but not intervene unless there was danger. Even then, she would have to move quickly.

The instructor gestured towards the centre of the room. “Stand here.”

Shizukesa stepped into the circle carved into the stone floor. It glowed faintly at his feet, reacting to his presence.

“Close your eyes,” the instructor said. “Tell me what you feel.”

He hesitated but obeyed.

Darkness washed over his sight.
The room became a faint echo around him.

At first, nothing changed.

The air was still.
His breathing steady.
The glow beneath him quiet.

Then something shifted.

A whisper of warmth rose in his chest.
White. Soft.
Like the glow of the petal from the day before.

It wasn’t frightening.
It wasn’t even unsettling.
It was gentle.

But the moment he acknowledged it, a cold thread wound itself around the warmth, tightening slowly.

Black. Sharp.
A pressure like a hand gripping from the inside.

Shizukesa’s breath caught.

“Hana,” the instructor said calmly. “What do you feel?”

Shizukesa opened his eyes. “Both.”

“Both what?”

“Something warm. And something cold.”

Aki whispered to Mira, “That is… vague.”

Mira shook her head. “That is more than expected.”

The Lotus Circle instructor stepped forward. “What colour do you feel?”

“White,” Shizukesa replied. “And black.”

The instructors exchanged a tense look.

That was the moment the pressure grew sharper.

Not painful, but heavy.
Pressing at the edges of his ribs.
Pushing for space.

Not let me in.
Not today.

It was quieter.
More like breathing beside him.

Shizukesa stepped back, unsteady for a moment. Rin was beside him instantly, Aki just behind.

The instructor raised a hand. “Stop the exercise. His core is not stable enough for extended resonance.”

Mira hurried forward. “Are you alright?”

“I think so,” Shizukesa said quietly.

Aki bent slightly to look at him more closely. “You look like you are going to pass out.”

“I am not.”

“You look like someone who will pass out politely,” she muttered.

Rin put a hand on Shizukesa’s back. “We are leaving.”

The instructor did not argue.

Walking back through the Guild Wing

The corridors felt colder on the way out. Shizukesa could feel the warmth from the white energy fading slowly, melting away inside him. The coldness did not fade. It lingered.

Mira walked beside him, occasionally brushing her fingers against the air as if checking the space around him for disturbances.

Aki looked shaken. “I did not like that. Not even a little.”

Rin spoke quietly. “It could have been worse.”

Mira nodded. “His core is trying to express something. It is not simply unstable.”

Shizukesa listened without speaking.
He knew something was wrong.
Something was moving inside him that he could not understand.

But something else troubled him too.

As they walked, he felt a presence.
Not the same one from before.
Not the gentle warmth nor the cold whisper.

This was different.

A gaze.
Distant.
Observing.

It wasn’t following him.
It was waiting.

Hidden.

Aki stopped suddenly. “Did anyone else… feel that?”

Rin turned sharply. “What?”

“That flicker,” Aki said. “Like someone walked behind us but no one was there.”

Mira’s face tightened. “I felt it too.”

Rin scanned the corridor. “Someone is watching him.”

Mira nodded. “Someone who does not want to be seen.”

Shizukesa looked between them.

“Do you think it is the presence from before?” he asked.

Mira hesitated. “No. This one is different.”

Aki clasped his arm firmly. “Whoever it is, I hate them already.”

Rin stepped forward and spoke with quiet steel.

“It does not matter who watches. They can look all they like, but they will not touch him.”

Shizukesa felt that warmth again inside his chest.
Soft.
Fragile.

It faded quickly, but it lingered longer than usual.

Reika was waiting by the kitchen counter when Shizukesa entered the flat. She had taken off her jacket and tied her hair loosely, though her expression carried a seriousness she rarely allowed him to see.

“How did the session go?” she asked.

“Strange,” Shizukesa said.

“Strange is better than catastrophic,” she replied, pouring him a glass of water. “The council will push for more tests. They always do when they do not understand something.”

He looked up. “Do you think they will replace you?”

Reika froze for half a heartbeat.

Then she put the glass down and walked towards him, placing a hand on his cheek.

“I am not leaving you,” she said.

Her voice was gentle, but the tremor beneath it was unmistakable.

Whatever she feared, she wasn’t showing it to him.

The moment lingered longer than usual.
More tender.
More fragile.

And it was the kind of moment that only exists right before something begins to break.