Pressure didn't arrive with alarms.
It arrived with routine.
Royoshi Kairo noticed it while brushing his teeth.
The mirror reflected a version of him that looked…normal. Same messy hair. Same half-lidded eyes. Same faint scar near his forehead that he only remembered when his hand brushed it by accident. Nothing screamed anomaly. Nothing about him suggested a problem.
And yet his hand slightly trembled.
Not in fear.
But in anticipation.
That scared him.
He rinsed his hands, wiped his face, and stared at the reflection a bit longer than usual. Royoshi's inner clock hated being late. There was an absurd checklist in his head—wake, stretch, brush and pretend to care.
"C'mon. Don't do anything stupid today, Royoshi," he muttered.
The reflection didn't answer.
Someone else did.
"That depends entirely on how you define 'stupid.'" the hologram man appeared beside him.
Royoshi startled. "WHY ARE YOU HERE? I AM IN THE BATHROOM."
"Well you need reassurance," he replied. "So I appeared."
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET TO SNEAK IN SOMEONE'S BATHROOM!"
"You'll get used to it," the hologram said. "Now get ready, you'll be late for your class."
Royoshi hurried and arrived to the class, a second before the Citadel's bell rang.
Master Devrik started announcing the schedules for each person in the class.
"Royoshi Kairo—additional evaluations scheduled."
The words hovered for a second longer than any other name. Murmurs washed through the class. Not aggressive but more like a weather change.
"I hate being different." Royoshi muttered.
Ishara Veyl had never liked guessing. Predictions were sloppy things that smudged intelligence into delusion. She preferred facts: how people acted, their posture and visible Shuryoku flow.
But Royoshi was something else in her system, like a blank space. Blanks bothered her more than any obvious error.
She watched him during warm-up drills. What he did, when he moved, with surgical precision and then like a film scene—he would hesitate, mistime a step, or let his Shuryoku circulation loop collapse at the last second.
"You're doing it again," she said later, catching up to him near the equipment racks. The corridor smelled like sweat and the permanent tang of performance.
"Doing what?"
"Playing dumb." She said.
"But I am dumb…"
She rolled her eyes. "No, you're not."
"You know they are watching you right?" she replied. "With this type of acting you won't fool anybody."
"Hey!!" Royoshi replied. "I am a good actor, and yes I know they are watching me."
"…Do you want help?" she asked after a moment.
"I just… don't know," he replied. "But thanks for asking."
"If you ever need any help, just let me know."
"Thanks , I will."
She left him with the feeling that she had done more than offer words and less than take an oath.