Chapter 3 - The Secret Examination

Florentine stepped away from the diagnostic controls and walked towards the centre of the room. The testing chamber, the same cube-shaped enclosure used by the Night Glow subjects earlier, was ready. She stepped inside and positioned herself at the centre of the chamber.

"Ready when you are, Flo!" Mr.Hugo called out through the intercom, his hand resting on the main activation lever.

"I’m ready!"

Mr.Hugo pulled the lever down with a heavy clunk.

BZZZZT!

The inner walls of the cube turned on its white light, signalling that every high-precision sensor array was fully online.

Flo closed her eyes, taking a single, steadying breath. Flo closed her eyes and reaching for that familiar, internal spark waiting at her core and with an impulse of pure will, tapped into the latent ability sleeping within her.

She opened her eyes, focusing her intent entirely on the metal sphere hovering in the centre of the chamber, the one still saturated with the heavy, dark residue of Night Glow magic.

“[-DAYSHINE-]”

A shining white light burst forth from her hand and clung to the metal, crackling against the dark residue until the murky aura hissed and got burnt off. Within seconds, the chaotic dark magic dissolved, leaving the sphere free of the Night Glow's effect.

On the other hand, Mr.Hugo had used his ability.

“[-OBSERVATION-]”

His vision had changed as he focused on the magical traces around the sphere. He tracked the residual trails of her DayShine light magic, analysing how they interacted with the sphere's surface and watching the exact moment the Night Glow magic was removed.

The monitors outside recorded every fluctuation.

"All right, Flo! Phase one recorded," Mr.Hugo's voice crackled through the speakers. "Retrieve the metal spheres with the matching Night Glow charge for the comparative run."

Flo nodded, carefully transferring the purified sphere into a sealed tray before setting up the next phase.

She picked up a second sphere, saturated with the same amount of Dark magic and reached for a specialised vial resting on the side table. Inside was a glowing white liquid: refined, liquid-form DayShine magic drawn from a standard DayShine user.

She poured the white liquid directly over the sphere and it purified the Dark magic in almost the exact same way as her own ability had.

"I'll run the comparative tests and also put both the metal spheres in the new Light-Dark Interaction Model prototype!" Flo called out, stepping out of the cube and walking over to the main console.

She placed both metal spheres inside a heavy cylindrical container, securing the latch with a tight twist.

The digital display on the container's lid lit up immediately:

[INSPECTING LIGHT & DARK ELEMENTS... 04%]

The percentage bar crawled steadily across the screen as the machine analysed the interaction between the two magical elements.

Flo waited, tapping her foot rhythmically against the metallic floor.

A few minutes later, the machine gave a cheerful ding!

Flo pulled up the data sheets, compiled the graphs and brought the tablet over to Mr.Hugo.

"Hmm..." Mr.Hugo stroked his chin, scanning the rows of numbers and readings.

Flo inspected the material too and noted,"The interaction profiles are identical. That means my DayShine has no unique properties in comparison to a standard user's DayShine as both interacted with Dark magic in the exact same way which also aligns with one of our other theories of how Light and Dark magic interact."

Flo let out a heavy, defeated sigh.

"Welp. So anomalies. Another day, another unfruitful result. Nothing new."

"No, no, no!" Mr.Hugo snapped his fingers, wagging a finger at her like a schoolmaster. "Every result is important, Flo! Like I've always told you: knowing what isn't true is just as crucial as discovering what is. Sometimes even more so!"

Flo slumped her shoulders in gloom.

Mr.Hugo tried to comfort Flo, seeing how dejected she was.

"How about we run your Observation as well? I know you have classes tomorrow but one more tiny experiment won't hurt. Who knows? Maybe we'll find something there tonight!"

Flo squinted at him suspiciously.

"Haven't we already done that almost every night?"

"Yes but that's research!" Mr.Hugo insisted, puffing his chest out dramatically. "One has to perform the exact same test a hundred times just to catch something. Who knows? Maybe we'll find something tonight!"

"Okay..." Flo mumbled, her voice thoroughly unenthusiastic.

She gave him a sharp side-eye.

"...I feel like you just make me use my Observation for security check-ups so you don't have to hire a guard."

A bead of sweat visibly rolled down his temple as Mr.Hugo cleared his throat.

"W-Well... of course not! Hahaha! What absurd nonsense!" he laughed nervously, looking anywhere but at her.

They stepped onto the circular platform at the base of the lower floor. It aligned with the circular, orb-like opening right above, through which one could peek at the lower level from the upper floor which itself aligned with the glass dome of the Observatory.

Mr.Hugo pressed a glowing button on the wall console and the platform began to rise like an elevator. Simultaneously, the orb-like structure opened up like a lid, making way for their rise and a section right above in the glass dome slid open as well.

The platform stopped right at the edge of the glass dome, aligning perfectly with the glass dome at the apex of the Observatory. From here, one could get a perfect view of the whole mountain with the distant skyline of the city visible on the horizon.

Flo raised her right hand, placing her index and middle fingers against the corner of her right eye.

“[-OBSERVATION-]” she murmured, her voice steady and focused.

Whoosh!

A teal geometric crest, resembling a stylised star encased in an intricate magic circle, ignited directly in front of her right eye.It rotated once and then spread outwards in a gentle wave, scanning the area around them.

"See? Nothing," she said, looking at Mr.Hugo. "No magic ability being used nearby. You can rest easy tonight. No rogue magic users are going to murder you in your bed, you huge scaredy-cat."

Mr.Hugo rubbed the back of his neck, laughing sheepishly.

"What can I do? My Observation has a pitiful range. Yours has such a better range. Besides, what else is an assistant researcher for if not to protect her helpless mentor? HAHAAHA!"

Flo opened her mouth, ready to unleash a comeback-

Ting.

Flo's Observation sensed something and she turned her head towards the direction of the signal.

"Okay, there's one ability user," Flo said, checking the reading. "It's coming from the edge of the city where the mountain starts. It's way too far for me to tell what kind, though. Anyhow, you are safe," Flo said, shaking her head.

Mr.Hugo gave a dramatic sigh of relief.

With the check complete, the two wrapped up for the night and headed home.

Ever since Mr.Hugo had taken Flo in ten years ago, they had shared a home attached to the old lab premises. But after the reconstruction, Flo started living in the Triple-A Dorms of the Active Ability Academy located inside the city.

Since tomorrow was Saturday, she had a full two-day schedule of specialised weekend classes ahead of her. The moment she reached her dorm room, Flo collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep like a log.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Snooze.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Snooze.

Flo had hit the snooze button five times. When she finally forced her eyes open the next morning, she felt completely exhausted. She didn't even have the energy to drag herself down to the academy cafeteria for breakfast but the alternative, trying to cook something herself, would probably end in disaster. But somehow, she still dragged herself out of the room.

Because she was already late, the main cafeteria was almost empty. Most of the food stations were already closed, leaving only a few basic options available. She settled for a piece of toast and a cup of tea, slumping into a booth in front of the large television in the centre of the dining hall. Half-asleep, she chewed her toast while the morning news broadcast played.

A field reporter was standing in front of a massive pile of shattered stone and twisted metal.

"Havoc all around!" the reporter announced, holding his microphone close. "e're live on 4th Street, where emergency crews are still clearing what used to be Mr.Kata’s Hardware. This local storefront was completely eradicated in a matter of seconds! One minute it was standing tall and the next, reduced to mere rubble. But what could have caused such sudden devastation? Let's speak to the shop owner, Mr.Kata. Sir, can you tell us what happened?"

The camera panned over to an elderly man in his fifties, his face pale and distressed.

"I... I don't know," the old man said, his hands shaking. "Last night, everything was fine. I locked up at eleven like I've done for years and went home. I came back this morning to open up and... it was just gone!"

"Have the investigators given you any official cause?" the reporter asked.

"Nothing! They said there's no trace of a gas leak, no short circuit, no fire damage. It makes no sense!"

"Is it possible an ability user could assist in clearing the debris or restoring the structure?"

The old man's expression instantly twisted into disgust.

"I would rather freeze to death in the streets than take help from those filthy monsters!"

With this, he turned away from the microphone.

The reporter cleared his throat awkwardly and turned back towards the camera.

"A-Aahh... as you can see, Mr.Kata is understandably devastated by his loss. Moving on, we have acquired footage captured by a nearby surveillance camera which happened to be recording the incident that occurred."

The screen cut to a grainy video showing an empty street with the storefront completely fine. Several civilians were walking past the shop. Then, all of a sudden, the entire two-storey brick building collapsed. It dissolved into a cloud of fine, powdered dust in less than a second, leaving behind only ruins.

The short video ended and the anchor returned to the screen.

"So as you can see, there seems to be no obvious reason as to why this happened. The investigators are still on this case..."

Flo set her tea down and stared blankly at the screen. She was taken aback by the video of the collapse but, at the same time, her mind drifted back to her own endless wall of research.

No matter what theory she built, no matter how many interaction models or ability tests she came up with, her hypotheses always seemed to crumble into worthless dust just like that building.

Will all her efforts always be in vain? Will she really never find her reason, just like they can't find the reason for the storefront crumbling down?

While lost in such thoughts, her tea had gone cold. Flo felt completely drained. The last thing she wanted to do was go through an ability workshop but the Active Ability Academy was one of the few places where she could learn more about her own abilities. If she wanted answers, she had to go.

"Why is life so tough?!" Flo wailed dramatically, dropping her head onto the table.

Tears immediately came streaming down her face. "Waaaaahhh! My research!"

She remained like that for a few moments before suddenly sitting back up and wiping her face as if nothing had happened. She grabbed her bag and stood up.

As she passed the television, the station aired a re-run of the shop owner's interview.

Flo glanced at the screen one last time, her gaze lingering on the angry old man shouting about "monsters". Faint, sparkling traces of something like magic hovered around his shoulders like tiny motes of dust.

"Why hate ability users so much..." Flo muttered softly under her breath, turning her back on the screen. "...when you're a user yourself?"

She adjusted her bag strap and walked out into the morning sun, heading towards her Triple-A classes with all the motivation she could gather.