"Class D?! I'm in Class D?! Is that it?!"

Kaito's voice was getting louder by the moment. He couldn't believe his ears and eyes. It all sounded too good to be true. He stood up with the paper in hand and looked at it as if the letters could change and lie about his entry.

"Mom... Dad... I made it..."

"Of course you made it! You are my son!" said Cassia getting up and hugging him tight.

"I never doubted it, Kaito!" said Miguel getting up and hugging them both.

Selize saw that family united and a quiet smile took her lips. But she still had a lot to talk about.

"I don’t mean to spoil your sweet moment, but there are things we need to talk about, Kaito."              

Kaito and his parents sat down and the boy stared at the principal intently.

"You will have conditions, won't you?"

"In our world there are always conditions for lower ranks. I'm glad you understand that."

"And what are those conditions? Whatever they are, I'm prepared for them."              

At that moment Kaito saw Selize's expression change. The woman who seemed smiling and calm was now serious.

"Plain and simple, no one is happy about your entrance. To be honest, they are more than unhappy. There are rumors that you steal other people's powers and that you were favored because I know your parents." she gives a heavy sigh "Which is a big lie, as one of my greatest amusements is torturing my friend’s children."

"And who are these bastards, Lize? Who do I need to pay them a visit?" asked Cassia closing her fists.

"I'd say it's directorial body, but with everything that's going to happen you may end up having to visit all of Rubra." replied Selize as she shrugged.

"I would visit, believe me!"

"Cassia, my love, if Selize is here it is because she has found a way around it." Miguel looked at the principal with concern in his eyes "You have found a way, haven't you, Selize?"

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to be complicated, difficult and troublesome." Selize gave a long sigh.

"And what problems would those be?" asked Miguel.

"I can get Kaito into the academy, but the other ranks won't like it and will protest. The weight of several high ranks protesting is somewhat oppressive. So I must create ways to make our dear Kaito shut them all up."

Kaito noticed that her weariness was replaced by a smile of defiance.

"And how can I shut their mouths?"

"Well, every three months there will be a team battle between the classes. Basically your class will have to face another class that is surely stronger. I say that because it is the academy's directorial body that will decide against whom your class will fight. If you lose, you are expelled not only from the Phoenix Academy, but from all the Rubra guilds, because the contract made to open class D has the signature of all the guild leaders. Oh, I was about to forget, but your parents will have to pay a very high nuisance fee too, because you made the high ranks and important members waste their time.”

"Wait a minute, Selize, isn't that too much? The Clash of the Fennix only happens with quintanists. Making Kaito fight powerful people in his first year seems like something very dangerous to me!" questioned Miguel.

"I can handle it, Dad!"

Cassia and Miguel looked at their son and saw in him a confidence that was beyond any doubt.

"I'll win every time, you can bet! I'll prove to everyone that an F rank can be stronger than them!"

"I'm always for a good fight, son, but I'm with your father on this one. I'm worried. You get tired too fast and you still can't control your powers properly. In fact, we don't even know how far your powers can go," added Cassia.

Kaito looked at his parents with regret. He looked at his pale white hands and closed them, gathering all his strength.

"You guys need to trust me. I've already proven that I'm capable, and it looks like I have to prove to the world that I'm capable too. Please give me that chance!"

Miguel stared at his son, gave a heavy sigh that soon turned into a smile.

"Selize, Kaito is going to enter the Phoenix Academy! We accept the deal!"

"Not only is he going to get in, he's going to kick the asses of everyone there!" stated Cassia.

Selize finished her coffee and smiled.

"If he didn't get in, it would be a huge problem. Look at all the conditions I had to accept for this class to exist. Anyway, now that you've joined the academy, dear, you have to guarantee me good surprises."

"Oh, that you can bet!" replied Kaito getting up.

The tone of the room became pleasant and full of confidence, but Miguel huffed as he placed his cup on the coffee table and caught Kaito's attention.

"Son, would you excuse us now? We want to talk things from our past and some boring stuff."

Kaito looked at his father and turned to his mother, who smiled at him sympathetically. Shrugging his shoulders the boy got up taking his letter of acceptance.

"Then I'll study some more. Good talk to you there."

The three of them heard the boy walk up the stairs and close the door to his room just above. A moment passed and the cheerful tone of the room was replaced by a heaviness and seriousness. Miguel took a deep breath, stared at his wife for a moment, and then decided to ask at once.

"Selize, has Kaito shown what he can do? Did he show that a classless person can have powers?"

"Yes, he did it in front of everyone, just like you said he would." she replied nibbling on a cookie.

"And now the world should know that an F rank has abilities and that should be shocking." said Miguel.

"The world doesn't know. The newspapers won't talk about it. There is a big influencer wanting to keep this hidden." replied Selize.

Miguel turned to Cassia and soon his wife turned to the rogue and said at once.

"What can we do to protect our son from the Architects?"

                                                                                        * * *

"Let me get this straight. You didn't pass, but then you go in because you were invited. Is that right?"

Kaito and Elynor were in the gym at home, where Eleanora and their mother usually worked out. Kaito was doing push-ups using a vest with weights while Elynor was quietly running on the treadmill.

"That's it! Now I'm in D class. In a month the new class will open and I'll be part of it," Kaito replied, doing his fiftieth push-up and stopping to rest.

"Got it. I'm happy for you, Kai. But I think it might be bad too."

"Yeah, I know. Now I'm going to be a target in that place."

"More than that" said Elynor as he increased the speed of the treadmill and ran even faster, but without getting tired "your whole class is going to be a target and they should blame you for it. It's going to be the Bloodless Class."

Kaito didn't much like being called Bloodless. He didn't mind calling himself that way, but seeing his brother say that didn't sound good to him.

"That's why I need to get stronger" Kaito said going back for another push-up session "If I get stronger, no one will be able to say anything about me."

Elynor shook his head, increased the speed of the treadmill even more and realized that this was a waste of time. He wouldn't get tired and nothing would change as long as he stayed there, which made him turn off the machine and sit down on the bench for supine.

"You are not weak. If you can use two skills at once, then you are not weak at all."

"My abilities don't compare to the original ones. It's like I can do what anyone can do, but at F rank. To tell you the truth I can't even use Dad's most complex spells. And worse, I get really tired when I do anything..." said Kaito, reaching thirty push-ups this time and getting exhausted in the process.

Elynor looked at his brother for a moment. Pale skin, white eyes, hair without any color. But he still looked strong. Was it the look in his eyes? Was it his body that was beginning to show the results of his training? He didn't know, but nothing could take his mind off that his brother was getting stronger and stronger.

"And in this month you intend to work out until you vomit every day?”

"I don't know if I can use the most powerful class skills, but I at least don't want to get tired. Actually that would be the worst thing. So I'm going to run every day, miles and miles. I will train and study as much as I can. Here or at the academy, I'm going to keep doing that."

Elynor stood up and walked over to his brother, who was getting ready for another push-up session, and extended his hand.

"Then I will run with you every day. What do you say?"

Kaito looked at his brother, took his hand, and stood up with a smile on his face.

"Be careful not to fall too far behind."

                                                                                        * * *

The Phoenix Academy had already started its classes a month ago and at its gates were the various students walking from one side to the other.

The groups were divided by ranks. The higher ranks bossed the lower ranks who bossed the lower ones. It was easy to tell who was from which class and what their rank was. It was in their uniforms, from rank B to S, and more than that, it was also in their confident and debauched postures.               

But they all stopped to look at the one who was coming through the gates. As the boy with freshly cut white hair and earrings in his right ear walked past everyone with a confident smile on his face, everyone turned to him without understanding.

"Hey, isn't that that Bloodless?"

"He passed? Didn't they say he had failed?"

"What's that on his arm? What is this nonsense?"

Everyone could see that on the boy's arm was an embroidery in black of an F, just like the embroideries of the higher ranks were. It was as if the boy was proud of the emblem he carried, and this pride and defiance of the higher ranks was already making everyone around him angry.

He went down the stairs and down again. When he was reaching the third floor of the subsoil, the boy turned into the long dark, cold, almost abandoned hallway and went to the last room, where he found what he wanted.

"Finally, class D!"

The boy took a deep breath and entered the room at once. Inside he saw at least thirty students, all low ranks like himself. The teacher who was drawing something on the whiteboard fixed his glasses on his face and asked somewhat confused.

"Ah, so you have arrived. Since you were late I thought you weren't coming."

The boy smiled and faced the class with a confident smile. It was his moment and those looks of disdain and disgust made them the best audience.

"Good morning, class D and good morning teacher. My name is Kaito, I'm F rank, my class is Generalist! I came to Phoenix Academy to make this class the best!" Kaito smiled and faced each person there in challenge "So, are you guys ready to face some higher ranks with me?"