Chapter 1 - Flo

It's a cozy morning. The birds are chirping. The leaves are fluttering in the cool wind.

Snores.

Oh, what is this sound? Looks like someone is in a deep sleep.

Snores loudly.

But where is the source of this snore?

Following the trail of the snores, we reach a huge observatory. Standing amongst thick trees deep inside a mountain, the glass dome reflecting the sunshine glitters in one's eyes as if one were in a sci-fi movie.

Inside, a young girl is DROOLING all over the piles of paper, notebooks and ink scattered across a wooden table. Her head, with teal roots and violet-golden ends, rests on an open book, with her hair spilling over the scattered mess.

It's understandable. Anyone would sleep under such warm sunshine, filtering through the numerous glass windows all around, making it just the right balance of warmth and coolness.

Especially if you are a cat.

"Why are cats so cute?" Flo mumbles in her sleep while clutching a cat-shaped plushie.

BONK!! Something hits her head.

"Ow! It hurts!" Flo rubs her head.

She rubs her eyes as her vision adjusts to reality, revealing her mentor standing in front of her with a book in his hand and a carefree look on his face. His silver hair was as messy as ever, despite the fact that he constantly tend to it while looking at any reflection he could catch of himself.

"It's noon already. Did you sleep before logging the details of last night?" he said, shaking his head.

"...Noon? Already?" she asked, while still being in a half-lost, half-asleep state.

"Yes, sadly."

She looked at the mountain of papers in front of her.

Then she looked at him.

"My sleep schedule is messed up because of this."

"Why do you whine? Isn't researching our job? Isn't it fun? HAHAHA!" the mentor said proudly while patting her on the back.

Flo mumbled, "Not when you make me do most of the work while you rest all the time."

The mentor leaned in and feigning ignorance, said, "Hmmmm, did you say something? Ah, well, anyhow, it's time for my afternoon tea." He turned towards the exit.

"See youuu! I am so excited to eat the choco-strawberry ice cream cake from that new dessert shop in town!" Turning his head back, he continued, "Ah, make sure to file the report by the end of the day. HAHAHA!!"

"Mr Hugo, wait..."

He walked away cheerfully, leaving his laughter trailing behind him.

Flo sighed.

"He always does this, not a care in the world, not a thought behind those eyes. Isn't it right, Miss Kitty?"

Flo petted the moody cat who wandered in and out of the observatory randomly throughout the day. She continued playing with the cat, conveniently forgetting about the report. This, of course, took away one more hour of her day.

[1 hour later]

"Oh no, I must get started on this report or else Mr Hugo will take out a portion of my salary."

Flo cried as realisation struck her.

"How nice of you to just be a cat, not having to worry about deadlines."

The cat meowed in response.

Flo hugged her warm fur, as if collecting the energy from the fluffiness of the cat that she would need in advance for all the work she had yet to get done. She aggressively petted the cat goodbye and returned to her station.

Flo walked around her table in circles while thinking deeply.

At the centre of the building was a huge circular hole, an orb-like structure opening between the two levels. From the upper floor, Florentine could look straight down into the laboratories below. She walked around it as well. Once, twice, then again.

She took a peek at the machines downstairs and then continued circling while thinking very deeply. So deeply that she didn't realise she had already walked through the underground corridors with their lamps and past all the stairs that led to the lower floor, where the major scientific equipment was kept for their research.

After an hour of this cardio, deep in thought, she had now walked almost every inch of the observatory.

"I am really annoyed. Really annoyed. Why can't I find the answer?" she mumbled to herself.

She decided to rest in the rest area beside the mini library near her desk. The moment she lay down, she felt relaxed.

"The sky is so pretty."

After being well rested, she hurried back to her table with a determined demeanour.

"Let's do this!"

She picked up her pen and unleashed her inner demon.

Scribbling at the speed of light, the pen continued gliding across the paper. Her notebook filled rapidly with calculations, observations and crossed-out theories.

Then she stopped halfway, got up, went downstairs, perused the ability monitoring section, noted down the previous day's readings and checked the other instruments.

She returned upstairs and continued filling pages after pages in another notebook labelled "Daily Log".

The observatory had two floors. The upper floor was where Flo sat, where the mini library was and where the huge glass ceiling, shaped like an orb, was. The night sky looked beautiful from here. Especially when you slept in the tiny rest area for the days when you had to pull all-nighters in the observatory, which was usually almost every other day. This was usually where all the theoretical work was done. She even walked inside the mentor's cabin, which was surprisingly always neat, in contrast with how one would perceive Mr Hugo's cabin to be, given his laid-back attitude.

After hours of gruelling work, partially thanks to the cat appearing nowhere near Flo, Flo was finally able to get her work done, and that too right before Mr Hugo arrived.

Flo picked up her heavy stack of paperwork and slammed it proudly on his workstation.

"Did you finish the equipment review?"

"Yes!"

"Even the ability measurement one?"

"Yes!"

"Ability Control?"

"Yes!"

"And the Light and Dark interaction model?"

"I have created a prototype already!"

"Logged the results of last night?"

"Yes!"

"Did you find out The Answer?"

"YE... wait, no."

Flo frowned.

"You know, that is the only mystery that still eludes me."

"Yeah, me too," Mr Hugo said with a more serious expression. "But don't lose hope. We will run a thousand experiments if we have to, but we will find it out."

"Mr Hugoooo~~~" Flo's eyes started tearing up as she wept and lunged forward for a hug at the rare care that Mr Hugo showed once in a blue moon.

"Not that it will take ME, THE HUGO, that long. HAHAHAHAHA!" he boasted while pushing Flo away by holding out one finger against her forehead, avoiding the watery hug while her arms flailed desperately for one.

Tired and upset, her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel's.

"Ahhh, I still remember the day you first came up to me. What a cute little kid you were. Well, of course, not so much anymore."

The cheeks puffed up more.

[~Flashback begins~]

10 years ago

Mr Hugo was the newly appointed professor in one of the abilities departments of the State of Cirnia, where he studied abilities and conducted research in depth to understand how they functioned.

Cirnia, meaning "the endless cycle" in Cirnian, was one of the biggest empires in the world. For most of its history, it had remained peaceful and flourishing.

The story goes like this…

[Yes, a flashback within a flashback. Deal with it.]

A long time ago, King Carsel, the ruler of the land of Circa, married a lady from a smaller yet magically powered nation called Urnia. This was a strategic move to combine the two nations and create a bigger empire which could have powerful magic users as well.

This created the current state of Cirnia, where two types of magic or ability users had developed over time: active and passive, each further divided into three types.

The active ones were Dayshine, Twilight and Night Glow. The passive ones were Communication, Observation and Healing. The active abilities were useful in combat, while the passive ones were more useful in specialised supporting roles.

[~Flashback in flashback ends~]

[~Back to just flashback~]

So, the Abilities Department had been set up to actively research various aspects of abilities, and Mr Hugo had always been fascinated by abilities since he was the sole ability user in his lineage.

On the third day of his solitary work in his basic lab facility, he noticed a tiny girl of around ten years old standing outside the lab entrance.

"Are you lost, little girl? Where are your parents?"

"I don't have any," the tiny girl replied with watery eyes.

"What? How did you come here then? Who brought you here? Where did you come from?" a worried Mr Hugo asked.

The little girl, a little taken aback, watched him suspiciously.

"Yep, days inside a lab does that to a researcher," he said, straightening himself up.

He crouched down and tried to make the little girl feel comfortable.

"What's your name?"

"Florentine."

"What a pretty name. Would you like to sit down inside?"

Again, a look of defensive suspicion arose in her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad person. I am just a researcher. AGHHH, what am I explaining to a little girl?! I don't know how to help her!" he said, all troubled, clutching at his hair.

Seeing this, the little girl laughed.

"I see. Ahahah, my misery is your delight," said a defeated Mr Hugo.

Patting her tiny, round head, he asked, "How did you end up here in this secluded part of the hill, little girl?"

"I just followed the light."

"A light?" Mr Hugo was visibly confused, yet ignored it in the name of her childish imagination.

Just then, her stomach grumbled.

"Come inside. Let's first find you something to eat."

Stepping inside the facility and looking through the glass panes, little Flo was enamoured by all the high-tech gadgets and strange experimental machines glittering in front of her eyes.

She ran here and there excitedly.

"Now there, Florentine, don't run, it is dangerous! No! Don't go in! This brat!" he said, breathing heavily while chasing her.

Little Flo just laughed and continued running until…

She fell, and a vial with weird black liquid toppled over her right leg.

"Now what did I tell you about running?"

And lo and behold, the tears streamed down her face.

"Oh no, no, no, no, don't cry!" Mr Hugo rushed to bring the first aid kit.

As he was about to swab the area clean, he stopped and stared at the shining white light emitting from her knee.

‘Light magic? Does this little girl have Dayshine? Well, it has to be, seeing how it's reacting with the Night Glow blood I had stored.’ Hugo thought to himself.

Little Flo asked, "What is this?"

"What?"

"What is this white and black thing? Uncle, I am scared. Am I dying?" She pointed to her knee.

Hugo froze right there and then.

"You can see the black glow?"

The girl nodded.

‘How could that be? Only Observation users can perceive the aura of the magic. But she clearly already has Dayshine. So how? No way! She can see the Night Glow and she's using Dayshine. Does that mean she has two abilities? But how could that be? No one in the history of Cirnia had ever possessed more than one ability. This is crazy!’

Mr Hugo's mind was racing with questions.

He couldn't believe what he was witnessing, but there she was, an innocent, teary-eyed little Flo who had somehow produced a crack in his knowledge of all that he knew about abilities.

Something he never knew could ever exist.

[End of Flashback]