Chapter 49: Is That A Child?
Is That a Child?
The building for Power Management & Flow was easily the biggest building dedicated to teaching only that Mike had seen.
It reminded him a bit of the auditorium where the orientation for new students had taken place. However, it certainly covered far more surface area.
It wasn’t an enclosed space but was open-roof, and if one looked down at it from above, they would see a massive hexagon with a platform at the center.
It didn’t have conventional seats but instead had hexagonal platforms that were a meter and a half in size, with them sloping downwards, similar to stands for each student to sit on.
One might ask, with ’seats’ so big, wouldn’t space become an issue? Well, yes, but the Eventide Academy had a lot of space to use, so...
There were a few thousand of these hexagonal platforms, and Mike guessed that this place could house most of the students in the school from all grades, which was made apparent when the few hundred students in their grade had to move down a lot to avoid being too far from the central platform where their instructor would be. Not that it ultimately mattered, as chances were that they could project their voice for everyone to hear somehow.
Mike and co were among the people who decided to get closer, and they immediately attracted a lot of stares as Mike felt gazes from numerous students at a time, and resisted the urge to sigh but made no comment.
If there was something he was glad about, it was how the ice between Theresa and Kris had broken a little. Theresa still couldn’t get much of a read on him, and Kris was certainly still anxious, but at least they weren’t acting like the other person was going to jump them in the next second.
It was far from ideal, but it was progress.
Baby steps.
The three of them got somewhat close to the center and picked out their platforms to sit on, putting a decent distance between them, but not super far.
They wouldn’t be chatting during the class, that’s for sure.
Mike sat on the platform and was pleasantly surprised to feel that it wasn’t just hard stone, but a durable sort of rubber that wasn’t too uncomfortable to sit down on, allowing one to sit for prolonged periods.
He sat down cross-legged and waited, wondering how this mysterious instructor of theirs was. Kris knew a bit more about the matter, but it ultimately wasn’t a lot, so they had to wait and see.
And soon enough, they got their answer.
Mike’s ears picked up on a noise, and he turned to see someone descending the stairs towards the platform, and it didn’t take long for everyone else to notice the newcomer.
But there was just one small problem.
’... Isn’t that a child?’ Mike blinked, and it was clear that he wasn’t the only one taken aback.
Murmurs started to fill the area as everyone watched the small figure, who was even smaller than Mike, go towards the central stage.
She had a small stature with slightly chubby, yet rosy cheeks, black hair that almost dragged at her feet, and big red eyes that almost seemed to glow like gems in the light. She also wore a small suit that, quite frankly, made her look adorable.
And yet, Mike had an odd feeling.
The murmurs only got louder as she reached the center of the stage, with some people throwing out downright disrespectful comments. However, this ’child’ paid no heed to them as she reached the central stage and looked up, having to crane her neck quite a bit to take in everyone.
Despite this, though, Mike felt himself fall under some form of observation despite not being stared at directly, and this strange feeling grew stronger, but it was unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
It was uncomfortable, in a way that made Mike want to leave this place immediately...
Or eliminate her.
’What am I–’ Before he could generate his thoughts fully, the ’child’ spoke, her voice spreading through the area effortlessly.
"Good afternoon. You’re all about as rowdy as I imagined." She spoke, trying to sound snarky, but the way her voice seemed so childish tugged at the heartstrings of many.
This, however, shut them all up, for a simple reason.
Voice projection seemed simple on paper, but it required something few, if any of the new students were that good at yet.
Energy control.
"Great, you aren’t all THAT unruly. Stay like that and make my job easier." She shook her head like she was chastising a group of children, pretty ironic.
’She’s focused on me...’ Mike realized with a small frown. She wasn’t looking at him directly, but he knew he was being observed. Moreover, it was quite intense, letting him know that he had somehow captured most of the attention of this person.
Not that he couldn’t say the same for himself, as the feeling of discomfort he got from her only grew, which was strange, especially if you consider how Mike was mostly at ease when dealing with the instructors who always gave him an intense feeling of danger.
Hers wasn’t any less, but it wasn’t that which gave him the feeling of discomfort.
No, it was just... HER.
Her very being made Mike feel something oddly close to offense. Which was weird since he didn’t know her from anywhere.
"I’m sure most of you don’t know me. So you’d better do some research when you leave this class, because I can’t be arsed to start telling you my feats to earn your respect. Granted, I’m not against folding most of you if that means you treat me appropriately." She continued, pretty much ranting.
’Okay, so her mind is certainly not that of a child. But... why is she stalling?’ Mike frowned. He had a slightly harder time reading her through his instincts, but he could tell that she was trying to stall for something. A feeling that only intensified as her gaze on him got even more intense, bordering on...
Hunger.
Mike squirmed a little.
"But enough of that. Just make sure not to disrupt me and listen well." She huffed and held out a hand.
"Let’s start with the basics. You all know what energy is, but I’m going to do a brief recap in case any of you are country bumpkings who live under rocks." She said dryly, and while it wasn’t directed at him, Mike felt personally attacked by that statement.
"Most of you know energy to be the concept that fuels your abilities, which is correct. However, it goes a lot deeper than that." She snapped her fingers, and a red orb appeared beside her head. It was slightly translucent and wasn’t completely stable as it deformed here and there, reminding Mike a bit of blood.
Which is also when he put his strange feelings aside and focused on his lesson.
"This, is my energy," She gestured to the orb. "In its raw form anyway." She snapped her fingers and the orb disappeared.
"Now, there are two forms of energy within the universe. They have a lot of names, but for the sake of simplicity, I will simply call them Internal Energy and External Energy. Internal Energy is the energy within your bodies and what fuels your abilities, while External Energy is energy that exists outside the body and is ’neutral’, so to speak." It appeared that this second part wasn’t common knowledge, as quite a few of the students leaned in to listen to her words, clearly interested. Which made Mike feel a bit better as he wasn’t the only unaware one.
He also caught sight of Theresa tilting her head slightly with thinly veiled interest. Kris, however, was hardly interested.
"Now the thing about External, or ’Neutral’ energy is the fact that it cannot be sensed or controlled by anyone outside of ability users. Even with how advanced humanity is, unless someone possesses an ability, sensing External Energy is impossible, unless the technology used to sense it was developed by someone with an ability centered around Energy." She added, and most people nodded, it only made sense.
Mike was among those people. However, he also noticed that the intensity with which she observed him had lessened somewhat. It was still significant, but he didn’t feel like he was about to get devoured anymore.
"The belief is that Neutral Energy exists on a separate plane of existence where normal people or constructs cannot interact with, but we who have abilities can, as our abilities somehow link us to this mysterious plane. It is also believed that this plane is where abilities originated from. However, that second part is purely theoretical and hasn’t been proved in any way, so take it with a grain of salt." She said as she slowly walked around the hexagonal platform.
By now, she had well and truly ensnared the attention of everyone present, as it was clear that despite her childish appearance, this instructor of theirs was no child.