Misato’s phone screen glowed bright enough that I could read "Assessnt Results Available" from where I stood. She tapped it once. The screen loaded.
Then she just stared.
"What?" Belle said.
Misato didn’t answer. Her thumb stayed frozen over the screen. Her face had gone completely blank in that way people do right before they either scream or pass out.
Jordan shuffled closer and tried to look at the phone. Misato pulled it away from him.
"Hey. Rude."
"They’re doing a broadcast," Misato said.
"What?"
"The rankings. They’re not just posting them. They’re doing a whole ceremony thing."
I grabbed my own phone. Sure enough, a notification banner filled the top of my screen.
FIRST ASSESSNT RESULTS - LIVE BROADCAST AT NOON
MANDATORY ATTENDANCE FOR ALL FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
LOCATION: HARBOR DISTRICT AMPHITHEATER
Belle read over my shoulder. Her blue hair tickled my neck.
"You’ve got to be kidding."
"Why would they make us sit through this?" Naomi’s voice ca out quiet. Tired. "Just post the numbers."
"Because suffering is educational," Jordan said. He pulled out a piece of candy from his pocket. Waterlon flavored. Unwrapped it with the slow movents of soone conserving energy. "They want us to feel it when we fail. Public sha builds character or sothing."
Misato put her phone away. Her jaw set hard.
"Harbor District. Now. If we’re late, it counts against house points."
We filed out of the arena and joined the flood of other first-years heading south toward the water. The campus suddenly looked like soone had kicked an anthill. Students everywhere, all moving in the sa direction, all wearing their house colors on their blazer trim like armies going to war.
Sapphire blue. Ruby red. Erald green. Amber gold. Obsidian black.
Five hundred students cramd onto paths designed for maybe two hundred at most.
Belle walked beside with her arms crossed. Her phone kept buzzing. She ignored it.
"This is stupid," she said.
"Yeah."
"Making us walk all the way down there just to see numbers on a screen."
"Builds suspense."
"Builds resentnt."
Naomi moved a few feet ahead with so Sapphire girls she’d t during weapons training. One of them kept glancing back at with curiosity. Her friend whispered sothing. They both giggled.
Great. Word was spreading.
The path opened up and we spilled into the Harbor District. The amphitheater where I’d woken up six days ago now filled with confused, anxious teenagers. Sa stone seats carved into the hillside. Sa massive stage. Sa ocean view stretching forever behind everything.
Soone had set up a projection screen the size of a house.
Students sorted themselves by house instinctively. Obsidian took the left section. Sapphire the right. Ruby, Erald, and Amber scattered through the middle like they couldn’t decide where they belonged.
The Midnight Foxes found seats near the middle of the Obsidian section. Not front row where the guild kids sat. Not back row with the lottery rejects who’d already given up. Middle. Where we’d earned after clearing an A-rank gate.
Jordan imdiately put his head down on the stone bench in front of him.
"Wake when democracy dies."
Belle sat on my right. Naomi on my left. The gap between and Naomi felt like miles even though our shoulders almost touched.
The screen flickered to life at exactly noon.
A logo appeared. San Nicolas Academy crest spinning in three dinsions like we’d never seen it before.
Then two people walked onto the stage. A man in an expensive suit and a woman in a blazer that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe from my old life.
The woman smiled at the crowd. Her teeth were so white they reflected the California sun.
"Good afternoon, students! Welco to your first official ranking ceremony!"
Her voice bood through speakers hidden sowhere in the stone. Professional. Enthusiastic. Like she was announcing lottery numbers instead of determining which teenagers survived and which got crushed under the weight of their own inadequacy.
The man beside her nodded like a ga show host.
"Today marks a critical milestone in your journey as hunters. Your first gate assessnt. Your first combat evaluation. Your first taste of real danger."
"Jesus Christ," Belle muttered. "Just show the rankings."
"We understand you’re eager to see results," the woman continued. "But before we reveal the top squads, we want to emphasize sothing important."
The screen changed. A graph appeared showing squad performance trics tracked across multiple categories.
"These rankings represent your starting positions. Not your final destinations. You have an entire sester ahead. Ten weeks to climb, to fall, to prove what you’re truly made of."
The man took over.
"Every month, you’ll face new assessnts. New gates. New challenges. Rankings will shift. Today’s top squad could be next month’s bottom five. Today’s struggling squad could beco winter champions."
The woman’s smile never wavered.
"Now. Let’s begin with squads fifteen through eleven. These teams showed promise but have room for significant improvent."
The screen shifted to display five squad nas with photos of their mbers.
RANK 15: STEEL TALONS - HOUSE ERALD
Five faces appeared. Three guys. Two girls. All looking nervous in their official photos. The woman’s voice narrated their performance.
"Steel Talons cleared their E-rank gate in fifty-one minutes with eighteen cores recovered. Solid fundantals but slow execution. Their coordination score was seventy-two percent. Room to grow."
RANK 14: GOLDEN PHOENIXES - HOUSE AMBER
More faces. Mostly lottery kids by the look of them. Cheap uniforms. Uncomfortable smiles.
"Golden Phoenixes completed their gate in forty-nine minutes with sixteen cores. Their teamwork scored highest in their bracket at eighty-eight percent. However, their combat efficiency needs work."
Jordan lifted his head slightly.
"Amber got soone in the top fifteen. That’s actually impressive for them."
RANK 13: ERALD SERPENTS - HOUSE ERALD
RANK 12: CRIMSON BLADES - HOUSE RUBY
RANK 11: SAPPHIRE SHIELDS - HOUSE SAPPHIRE
The announcents continued. Each squad got thirty seconds of analysis. Their clear tis. Their core counts. Their strengths and weaknesses laid out for everyone to judge.
My leg bounced. I couldn’t stop it.
Belle noticed. Her hand ca down on my knee. Firm. Grounding.
"Calm down."
"I’m calm."
"Your leg is having a seizure."
I forced it still.
The woman on stage clasped her hands together like she was about to announce the winners of a baking competition.
"Now we move into our top ten squads! These teams demonstrated exceptional performance for first-year students. They showed coordination, tactical awareness, and the combat prowess we expect from San Nicolas graduates!"
The screen wiped clean.
RANK 10: OBSIDIAN VANGUARD - HOUSE OBSIDIAN
Four guys. One girl. All guild kids by their uniforms. Custom tailoring. Confident expressions.
"Obsidian Vanguard cleared in forty-one minutes with twenty-three cores. Strong individual performance but coordination could improve. Rated B-rank overall."
Belle leaned forward.
"Twenty-three cores. Sa as us."
"We had an alpha," I said.
"Exactly."
RANK 9: ROSE DRAGONS - HOUSE RUBY
RANK 8: AZURE SENTINELS - HOUSE SAPPHIRE
My pulse kicked up. We weren’t in the bottom five. That ant we’d made top ten at minimum.
But top ten wasn’t top five.
Top ten didn’t win the bet.
The man’s voice took over.
"As we enter our elite seven squads, you’ll notice sothing interesting. These teams didn’t just complete their assessnts. They dominated them."
RANK 7: MIDNIGHT FOXES - HOUSE OBSIDIAN
My face appeared on screen.
Then Naomi’s. Belle’s. Jordan’s. Misato’s.
We looked absolutely ridiculous in our official photos. Jordan’s eyes were half-closed. Belle’s smile was fake as hell. I looked like soone had told to smile for a mugshot.
Only Naomi and Misato looked remotely professional.
The woman’s voice filled the amphitheater.
"Midnight Foxes. A fascinating squad composition. Four lottery admissions and one guild-affiliated first-year. They cleared their E-rank gate in thirty-seven minutes with twenty-one cores including one alpha-class hostile."
The crowd made noise. Murmurs spreading through the sections.
An alpha in an E-rank gate. That was the irregularity.
"Their coordination score was ninety-one percent. Combat efficiency was exceptional. They received an A-rank evaluation. The highest rating for any first-year squad made up of multiple lottery students this assessnt cycle."
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