📍 A.M.O. Building — Front Steps | Afternoon
The tests concluded.
Kiyoshi sat on the front steps of the A.M.O. building with the particular stillness of someone who has received news they were already half-expecting and are now deciding how to feel about it. Beside him, Kavato sat in a mirror of the same posture — spine straight, eyes forward, expression carefully arranged into something that was not quite disappointment.
They had both received E rank.
Inside, the results board had been updated with the quiet indifference of a system that did not care about the feelings of the people it classified. Yamu and Sumu's E ranks had not been anomalies. They had simply been first.
Neither Kiyoshi nor Kavato said anything for a moment.
Around them, the street moved on — merchants, adventurers, a cart being pulled by something that was not quite a horse and did not seem bothered by this. The city had no interest in their results.
"E rank," Kavato said finally. Not bitterly. Almost conversationally, like he was testing how the words sounded out loud.
"E rank," Kiyoshi confirmed.
Another pause.
Then Kavato extended his hand.
"If you need anything," he said, and there was something underneath the ease of the gesture — something careful, and genuine, and slightly unused, like a door that didn't get opened often. "Don't hesitate. I'm the younger one of the Ramiya house. They have a way of making you feel like you're in the way." A half-smile. "I'm used to finding my own path."
Kiyoshi looked at the hand. Then at him.
He's been dismissed before, he thought. By people who should have known better. And he's still here, still standing on these steps, still extending his hand like it costs nothing.
He shook it.
"I have a feeling," Kiyoshi said, "that you're going to surprise this kingdom."
Kavato laughed — short, genuine, dismissing the idea with the fluency of someone who had dismissed it many times. "That's an improbable feeling."
"Maybe." Kiyoshi shrugged. "I tend to be right about systems."
Kavato stood. Brushed off his coat. Turned to leave, and then — just before he cleared the last step — turned back. His smile was bright and easy and covered something that Kiyoshi filed quietly away for later.
They would meet again. He was certain of it.
📍 A.M.O. Building — Side Street | Afternoon
Sakura had received B rank.
This had created a problem.
Five groups had descended on her within minutes of the result being posted — recruiters, representatives, people with offers that got more elaborate with each refusal. Kiyoshi watched from a distance as she navigated them with the cold efficiency of someone who had been managing unwanted attention for a long time and had developed a system. No eye contact held too long. No answer that could be taken as maybe. Each group peeled away looking faintly confused about what had just happened to them.
He waited until the last one had gone.
"Sakura." He glanced at the sky — the light was already tilting toward late afternoon. "We need to move."
She pressed two fingers to her temple and exhaled through her nose. "Give me a moment."
"We've been here since—"
"A moment."
He stopped.
She was looking at something he couldn't see. Her eyes had fixed on a point slightly to the left of everything, the way people look when they're reading. But there was nothing there.
"What are you looking at?" he asked.
She blinked. Looked at him. Then, slowly, turned her gaze back to the invisible thing.
"Can you see this?" she asked.
"See what?"
"Blue. Right here." She gestured at the air in front of her face. "A screen. With my name on it."
He stared at the empty space she was indicating.
Nothing.
"I can't see anything," he said.
She was quiet for a moment, reading something he had no access to. Her expression moved through surprise, then a careful stillness that meant she was thinking fast.
"It says B rank," she said.Â
**SYSTEM**
[
Name: Sakura
Rank: B [Level 1]
Hp: 100%
Mp: 500
Skills: 0
Storage: 5
Title: Dark
Type: Assassin
]
He looked at her — at the slim, careful way she occupied space, the economy of her movements, the way she had navigated five groups of recruiters like she was walking through a room she'd already memorized.
He filed that away too.
"Does it say anything about mana?" he asked. "What it does?"
She read. "Magic power. Fuels skills — the stronger the skill, the higher the cost. If you drain it completely..." She paused. "An E-ranker would be paralyzed for a month. Rest restores it slowly. Potions speed it up."
He tried to find his own screen.
It took him three attempts and something that felt like trying to look at the corner of his own eye. Then it appeared — blue-edged, faint, hovering in his peripheral vision until he focused on it directly.
**SYSTEM**
[
Name: Kiyoshi
Rank: E [Level 6]
Hp: 100%
Mp: 100
Skills: 0
Storage: 2
Title: 0
Type: 0
]
"Mine says E rank," he said. "Level six. Hundred mana."
"Level six at E?" Sakura looked at him properly. "That's — the test only checks rank, not level. Most people start at level one."
"How do you know that?"
"I read faster than you."
Fair.
"What does type zero mean?" he asked.
She had no answer for that.
Kiyoshi looked at his screen for another moment — at the empty fields where skills and title should have been, at the word Zero sitting in the type column like a placeholder — and then looked away.
Start from nothing, the barman had said. Get strong, or get out of the way.
He stood.
"Skills next," he said. "We need a spinner."
Sakura was already moving.
✦ CODEX — Chapter Four ✦
World Archive: Entries Relevant to Chapter Four
ENTRY 014 — ON STATUS SCREENS
Status screens are visible only to their owner. They cannot be shared, transferred, or read by another person — only described. Their existence is not discussed publicly in most social contexts, for the same reason most people do not announce their bank balance to a room.
Known fields: Name, Rank, Level, HP (health), MP (mana/magic power), Skills, Storage, Title, Type.
Not all fields are populated at awakening. Empty fields are not errors. They are, in some cases, something the system has not yet decided.
ENTRY 015 — ON MANA (MP)
Mana is the measure of magical energy a person carries. It fuels skills — every skill has a cost, and stronger skills cost more. When mana depletes fully, the consequences scale with rank:
E rank: full paralysis, approximately one month recovery
Higher ranks: shorter recovery time, greater natural reserves
Recovery methods: rest (slow), sleep (moderate), mana potions (fast, expensive at higher grades).
Sakura's starting mana: 500. This is considerably above average for a new B-rank awakening.
Kiyoshi's starting mana: 100. This is below average for E rank. The reason is not yet understood.
ENTRY 016 — ON TYPE CLASSIFICATIONS
Type describes the nature of an individual's awakened ability — the category it falls into. Common types: Warrior, Mage, Healer, Archer, Hunter, Assassin, and dozens of subcategories.
Assassin is rare at awakening. It implies high precision, high damage, low visibility. Those classified as Assassin-type tend toward speed, silence, and singular strikes rather than sustained combat.
Zero as a type classification has no recorded precedent in A.M.O. records at time of this entry. The system assigned it. What it means has not been established.
The archivist notes: the system does not make mistakes. It classifies what it sees. If it returned Zero — it saw something that had no existing category.
ENTRY 017 — ON THE GANGS
Five groups approached Sakura following her B-rank result. For reference:
Flame Bladion — mid-tier combat group, known for aggressive recruitment. Gallant Gang — reputation for honour, selective membership. Iron Fury — numbers-focused, B-rank majority. Yamogi Gang — regional presence, connected to trade routes. Warisus Gang — criminal syndicate. Their recruiter was the last to approach and the first to be declined.
Sakura joined none of them.
ENTRY 018 — ON KAVATO RAMIYA (UPDATED)
His rank result: E.
He received this with the composure of someone who had already prepared for it, which is either confidence or resignation. The distinction matters and has not yet been determined.
He extended friendship to Kiyoshi without conditions. This is noted.
His smile, observed on departure, covered something. The archivist does not speculate on what. It will become clear in time, or it won't.