The Final Cycle

Chapter 3: Facade

Today was the first day of school for students attending the Augmentation Institute of New Ragna, and even before students walked inside there was already a commotion.

"Oh my god, is that Rei Sato the genius student from Japan? I heard she arrived here via stealth technology."

"Look, there's Liu Xiu Wei. He's the New Ragna Scholarship winner from China. Lucky bastard stole it from Rei."

"Aldo Weber, the Iron Fist from Germany. I hope I'm in the same class as him."

The international students had arrived. Since they weren't from the UCNA not much was known other than what was public knowledge so many of the students swarmed the entrance when they had arrived, and in the midst of all of this chaos Japanese Exchange Student Rei Sato just wanted to have some peace and quiet.

The moment she got off the Cross Continental Hoverail, she was bombarded with paparattzi and reporters. She barely escaped the wave of reporters by putting on her new bracelet, courtesy of her mother, and turning on stealth mode. Stealth technology was just created in Japan so the bracelet wasn't perfect. It would keep the wearer stealthed for 10 minutes, but 10 minutes was all Rei needed to escape the horde of reporters.

Rei had hoped that they would leave her alone for the rest of the day after that, but unfortunately when she had started walking up the steps to the institute her stealth broke and the reporters who were there instantly spotted her. Only when she walked inside of the building was she finally free from the press.

"God, they are persistent." Rei cursed under her breath as she walked through the entrance.

"That's because to them you are an enigma." A voice said in a thick chinese accent.

Rei turned around to see a tall burly Asian man with long black hair.

"Hello Rei, I'm Liu Xiu Wei. You can call me Liu though," He reached out his hand, which Rei shook hesitantly. "I hope we can become allies during our stay here."

Rei wasn't too fond of Liu, who had managed to place higher than her in the International Placement Test. He also received the New Ragna scholarship she had worked so hard to try and obtain, but by their short interaction Rei surmised that Liu wasn't holding his win against her and was instead trying to create a friendly atmosphere between the two of them. She could respect him for that.

"There Liu goes, trying to make friends with everyone." Another voice said followed by a chuckle.

A blonde haired man walked up to the two of them and patted Liu on the back.

"To be honest, Liu was waiting for you to arrive. He must have been really interested in you.

"Shut up Kaiton, I'm just a friendly person." Liu shook off Kaiton's hand and walked away.

Kaiton smiled before walking over to Rei.

"You probably heard it from Liu, but I'm Kaiton. It's nice to finally meet the genius Rei Sato in person."

"Thank you."
Suddenly, a lighthearted short jingle played over the loudspeaker. Rei turned to the loudspeaker as a voice on the loudspeaker started to talk.

"Attention all New Ragna Students, please start heading to your respective classrooms as classes will start in thirty minutes." The loudspeaker turned off. The school was separated into two parts: Domestic and International. The Domestic section was composed of students from UCNA while the International section was composed of transfer students from other countries. This was implemented so students would be placed with either peers with similar IQ levels or people they could connect with.