10

Mrs. Mana scans her tablet with concentration, and then starts to call out the names of the new kids randomly. The first child is called Kirka Sorawa. The girl was small and thin, with a typical freckled face. She walked stumbling and almost tripped on the podium. Though Venus estimates that the height of the podium wasn't until a span. Venus was so tense, that even her scalp felt itchy. Really annoying.

“Stand in the center, darling,” said Mrs. Mana pretentiously sweet.

Kirka nervously complied. Venus couldn't see clearly what Mrs. Mana was doing, other than that she had only dotted the screen of her tablet. However, suddenly from under the podium came a soft whirring sound, surprising Kirka. Venus's neck was protruding like a giraffe, and she even had to stand because of an un-strategic seat.

From the edge of the podium, at least nine kinds of strange objects and a crow looked around fearlessly. The nine objects that seemed to surround Kirka were the stone of a fist, a hammer-sized iron rod, water in a glass vessel, a candle in a burning cup, empty open glass jar, handful of red soil (burial ground? Ha ha), cute plants in pots, a pair of metal sticks that emit electric threads, and ice blocks on a strange, rectangular metal mat (will it not melt?).

Venus sat back with pursed lips and frowned lips. Without realizing it the tension subsided.

“What's all that for?” Venus muttered, again not to anyone, while continuing to watch Mrs. Mana. “Circus? Magic? Useless debris parade?”

Somehow her colleagues in hee team no one responded. Venus finally turned and found the four of them looking at her strangely.

“Is there something wrong?” asked Venus defensively.

All she got was the grunt of four young children.

God damn it.

The choir sound "ah" awakens Venus. The object is Kirka who also looks fascinated. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened. Again, Venus must stand up and craning her neck.

In front of Kirka, the stone that had been below, now gradually floats and floats to as high as about one meter. A few seconds later the stone returned to its original place. Mrs. Mana smiled while clapping, and everyone followed her.

“Congratulations, congratulations!” Mrs. Mana blurted cheerfully at Kirka. “Well, please return to your seat, honey!”

“What are congratulations?” Venus asked again, this time to the three seniors in front of her. She didn't want to be ignored anymore. “And, seriously, what are those things?”

“Congratulations because she turns out to be a stone controller,” Ris said makes sense. “And, seriously, Mrs. Mana said at the beginning that this was the Talent Selection session. That means they are the object of determining Talent!”

“Yeah, that's right,” said Lou sarcastically. “But what she meant by congratulations is because this Kirka wasn't a dangerous person. Ha ha.”

“The truth is because she's a normal person,” Shad joined in. “That is more common than the three of us put together.”

“How is it different from harmless?!” Lou jerked resentfully.

The two of them argued again.

Venus laughed halfheartedly while looking at Ris and Virzash.

“Well,” Venus said finally, deciding silently that Ris's answer was the right one, and at the same time mediating Shad-Lou's debate accidentally.

Talent Selection sessions take place quickly. However, it actually makes the tension of Venus again peaked. The more that is identified, the more she becomes confused and unfocused. Venus is barely aware of some names that sound like they came from the First Earth. Virzash often looked at her who looked as uneasy as she was, though perhaps for a completely different reason.

“Virzash Venosa!”

Virzash stood up so suddenly that he almost tipped his chair back. His ears were pink, making some children laugh softly. Even so, he walked with confident steps. Or at least, Venus thought so. She held back the laughter that almost burst out.

This is really adorable. The name is also a baby.

Once in the middle of the podium, the room became a bit buzzing like a wasp's house. Mrs. Mana tried to overcome it with a little rebuke. Venus grinned, knowing full well that who was being rebuked was talking about.

After a period of almost a minute, not forgetting spiced confused and worried expression of Mrs. Mana, and whispers throughout the room, Virzash's talent finally surfaced as well. The block of ice that had just melted a little (due to the metal mat of technology?) began to float rather shakily.

Then, the next source of rumors ensued.

The ice didn't stop at a height of one meter as before, but continued until it was level with Virzash's head. A look of surprise that was so dramatic seemed to adorn Mrs. Mana's face. She turned to the krona and looked for a long time at Pasirr, like she was doing emergency telepathy in a lightning speed. But Pasirr who was seen looking wide-eyed looked at Virzash's back. Venus turned to the senior trio in front of her in confusion.

“Is there something wrong?” Venus whispered.

“Sis!” Lou cash chided her in a restrained tone. “Why do you have to ask the obvious, anyway?!”

“That does not—”

Venus practically didn't know what exactly Ris would say, because at that time the room was filled with exclamations that sounded even more shocked than before.

The ice block before Virzash had not yet come down, when the fire that came from the candle in the cup suddenly floated and ended right next to the ice block. The fire blazed a little bigger than before. Both types of Talent last for two seconds, before finally returning down. For a few seconds, the room was completely silent.

Mrs. Mana cleared her throat and broke the finger again on her tablet. She rubbed her forehead with her hands, as if just doing so had made her tired.

“Virzash Venosa,” said Mrs. Mana rather stiffly, “the gift of Fire and Ice is embedded in your soul. You are a Double. Please return to your seat.”

Virzash walked with quick steps, accompanied by the eyes of the krona who almost all looked worried. His face turned red.

What is this?

“Is that weird? A Double Talent?” Venus immediately asked as soon as Virzash arrived in his chair.

Virzash scratched his ears while leaning on the table. His face looked down, avoiding the eyes of other children; junior or senior.

“This is a rare Talent,” he said quietly. “I think I got this talent from my third grandmother's inheritance.”

“Huh? How?” said Venus didn't understand. “What about the third grandmother?”

“Grandmother from grandmother from my grandmother,” Virzash answered confused.

Apparently he saw the blank expression of Venus, because he then explained, “My grandmother has a grandmother. Well, my grandmother's grandmother has another grandmother. Grandma that's what I mean.”

Shad chuckled irritably.

“That's not important, you know?!” Shad retorted seriously. “The important thing is, you become like us!”

“Become abnormal, you mean?” said Virzash flatly. Shad grinned again.

The Talent Selection session continued with somewhat tense. Venus noticed, many facial expressions seemed relieved when the summoned turned out to have only ordinary Talent.

“So, what's the problem?” Venus again asked the original topic.

Ris looked at Venus seriously.

“Thirteen years ago there was a group calling themself as the Voltura,” she explained. “Almost all the special Talent volts in this country were recruited by them. Even worse, all special Talent students who haven't graduated from here secretly join in, and some of them create chaos by hurting other students at random. That makes the image of Volta Juana a little bit scary. Then, about eight years ago, a security force named Voltum succeeded in defeating the leader of the Voltura who had a Secret Talent, and captured almost all of its members. I think that is what makes everyone here become alarmed and somewhat wary of students with unusual talent. Afraid of repeating past events.”

“But, the Voltura organization are no longer exists, right?” Venus said skeptically. “Then why are they still acting like this? And, for whatever's sake here, how could there be a volt that has Secret Talent?!”

“There is indeed a Talent Secret, and it's one in a million!” Lou snorted. “After all, this traumatic event was not because of the Voltura or its leaders only, you know?”

Ris nodded gravely. Her eyes looked at a stocky guy who had just come up

“There are lots of records of serious crimes, most of whom are special volts,” Ris continued. “Long ago, even before the Voltura organization appeared. Even though I feel unfair, but I can understand why this country has become wary of the existence of these unusual volts.”

Venus grunts.

“Really,” she said annoyed. “Then what about ‘the other minor crimes committed by ordinary volts’?”

“That means it's not a priority, Sis,” Lou said sarcastically. “In general, only minor actors.”

“Besides,” Ris retorted further, “the Voltura members were only partially caught, I said. Which means, some others managed to escape somewhere. The rumor said they had succeeded in entering the First Earth, and the members of the Voltum chased and crushed it. However, no one really believed that the former Voltura members had all been paralyzed. Especially the leader of the Voltura. A volt with a Talent Secret like that is very difficult to defeat.”

“Why?” Venus asked in surprise.

Ris answered more grimly, “Bizura, as we call the Secret Talent volts, is capable of mastering all Talents. However, there is one talent that really dominates, and that becomes its weakness. No one else can know what Dominant Talent is, sometimes even the owner is not. That all makes Bizura more dangerous than other strange volts. We will not be able to defeat a Bizura if we do not know what his weaknesses are.”

“What if the Voltum member attacks randomly?” Venus said. “Of the ten talents, one of them will definitely react!”

Lou snorted and rolled her eyes. “That's not how it works, Sis. You must know in advance what the Dominant Talent is, then you must look for another weakness in that one Talent. And, even though you already know both of them, it's not an easy thing to just catch a Bizura. It takes ten types of volts with large amounts in order to kill him.”

“Unless you have an ally of a Bizura too,” said Shad, shrugging. “At least, that said another Bizura who lived several hundred years ago to the world.”

“Yeah,” Riss joined in. “The problem is, Bizura is not the kind of volt you can easily find.”

Venus was secretly horrified. If it's true the Voltura leader is still roaming freely, it could be bad. What if they rebuild the Voltura? Well, don't even think about it!

“Venus Samudera!”

Venus jumped so hard that it nudged Virzash's shoulder. Virzash just looked at the girl amused.

“H-How do they know my identity?” Venus muttered to herself like a fevered person.

“Your identity must be registered, right?” Lou said, looking at Venus strangely.

“How could it be?!” Venus protested loudly. “My father abandoned me, and my adopted father said, my biological mother died in a ship accident.”

“Grandparents?” Shad guessed.

“My adoptive father said, they died long before I was born,” said Venus stubbornly, feeling angry having to remember the figure of Bima again.

“VENUS SAMUDERA!”

This time Shad even jumped. Virzash pushed Venus's back so she hurried forward before anyone forcibly dragged her. Venus clenched her fists and wished her Talents were normal. It was enough that she forced herself to go along with friends with a collection of volts with strange Talents, and ended up disliked by many other students, without having to bear the gift of the strange Talent itself.

Venus stood in the middle of the podium and waited nervously. Unlucky, her mind was getting worse when a minute passed without anything happening. A whisper broke out again, and Venus was no less worried about them. Venus bit her inner cheek. Don't tell her that the Talent is also double, or worse, not having any Talent?!

Of course, everything is not true.

The water in the glass vessel starts to flicker and float, then stops at a height of one meter in front of Venus. A sigh of relief sounded out from the lips of Venus and the large room. Mrs. Mana smiled broadly and also looked relieved. Venus almost responded when she saw that the fire in the candle below looked shaky, then lifted up. The crow beside the fire cawed loudly, but remained in place. Venus's eyes widen, and her feelings lose control. Her body was frozen frozen, and a frightening cold sensation crept up her back. The fire stopped beside a speck of water that still floated before Venus.

Suddenly, as if having orders, other things began to follow the Fire's example. Stone, electric metal, empty jars without a lid, potted plants, blocks of ice, iron, and a handful of soil moving in unison to align both sides of fire and water. Then, these nine objects lift themselves higher and move in a round frame before Venus. The bottom one is the soil, parallel to the knee. And at the top, is an empty jar that hangs oddly above the head line of Venus. As if it wasn't over yet, the crow below who had cawed, flew around Venus's body. The crow continued to revolve while cursing horribly.

Even without Ris's explanation, Venus knows that this is going too far. She came to the Second Earth only to be the target of fear and hatred of many people.

Venus was born just to be a bizarre Bizura.

Goddamn it.

Venus hopes she stays in the Dark Portal forever.