“Ahhh doing this takes too slow,” I groaned. “If only I could download information as easily as a computer downloading from the web.”

I stared at my phone screen replaying my hologram lecture, attempting to make sense of a string of uncommonly placed words uttered by my professor. Something about crystals as a replacement for power plants and how they are used as a wireless energy source for holograms. Then he goes on about the history of how the first crystals were created to siphon energy from thin air.

I detached my eyes from my handheld screen for a break and heard approaching dull thumps coming to a stop, followed by a voice over my shoulder. “So you’re studying on New Year’s and Integration Day. A new record for how much of a bore you are.”

I grinned at the carrier of the voice as he circled around my back, slid a chair next to me on a round table, and settled. He placed his elbows on the table and interlocked his fingers into one giant fist; his head perched over in my direction, egging for my response to his banter.

“Hey, I’m graduating in a semester. I’m reviewing what I learned so I won’t forget in the field.”

But he was right—I am studying on the 40^th anniversary of humanity’s integration; and to make his message more comical, I was sitting here in a university café as the planet begins its new revolution around the sun. Two holidays meant more celebration, but that didn’t stop me from attending an important annual event—a public seminar.

“You’re also graduating with me—but instead of engineering, it is in the arts,” I told him. “You know why I came here, too. I invited you to come with me and you had all the time to decline, Ruyo.”

My friend took my response as a cue for melodrama. One arm extended towards me with the other hand grasping his heart. His face contorted in anguish as he laid his pain-filled eyes on my being. “O Lord Laizen! Our friendship must have come to such a point where you call me by name! O please, I implore you not expose my treasured past to the likes of those surrounding us!”

What am I doing studying on Integration Day? Rather, why did I invite this unpredictable and spontaneous gamete to go to a public seminar? He would only absorb and shapeshift into whatever the environment provides him. I shook my head in notice of my mistake.

“Please don’t do this, my soul needs recuperation from your unbridled silliness,” I begged. “And I think you’ve got it reversed. I called you by name when our relationship was just starting; maybe a reversal is necessary since you're becoming a stranger to me now.”

Ruyo relaxed and settled back into a normal posture, only to quickly take aim with extended fingers on both hands to jab my vulnerable sides. I let out yelps for the first few attacks, which evolved into suppressed grunts as he stood and revolved around the back of my chair to spread his tease. I rocked in my seat and defended myself with arms lifted in exotic postures, but even that could not escape his all-knowing eyes.

Only when Ruyo sat back in his chair did my defense against his shadows cease. “Too stiff, you are,” he said, finger pointing in a disapproving manner.

I turned my head to spot other people gazing in entertainment. Others with their backs turned were prompted by their friends to take a look at the scene, revealing toothy smiles. Returning my head to a neutral position, I chuckled at my imagination of fending against air.

After settling from Ruyo’s tease, I reclined into my seat with an upturned face and reimmersed into the warmth of the browns and oranges of the naturally lit afternoon cafe. The main door opening and closing alarmed a bell’s jingle for every visitor and sent in a breeze from the gray-skied winter. It wasn’t long before the chatter grew enough to remind me the purpose of my attendance—the disciple’s public seminar.

Lifting my head from relaxation, Ruyo was looking with a still form, awaiting my return with a gleeful smile. “There you go, now you’re ready for the seminar.”

“It would be nice if the Integrator showed himself instead of his disciple, then my search would be over,” I said.

“Ah, completely forgot that you have been obsessed with the Integrator and his disciples for the past few months. Need some guidance?” Ruyo pointed to a collection of words on his phone’s screen, and a brief moment of silence followed as I attempted to understand what he was pointing to.

‘Guidance’, it displayed. I squinted below the bold font and read a description of getting counseling from a spiritual guide for those lost in life. “Why would you search—”

“I lost you for several minutes after my barrage, so I thought your soul left, and my concern led me here,” Ruyo smirked.

“Maybe you can lend me some of your soul,” I insisted. “In any case, I don’t need guidance—the information I gathered in bits and pieces regarding the Integrator is just unsatisfactory for me.”

“Lost,” Ruyo repeated, thumping his fingernail on the screen to bring my attention to his now horizontal phone – displaying ‘Guidance’ in large, bold letters.

My obsession with the Integrator didn’t mean I was lost. I wanted the truth of his existence in an endless sea of myths—a savior, a miracle, people kneeling in his presence, and curing people of various pre-integration illnesses. All were things I overheard throughout my twenty-one years of life.

The search began when I recognized that every action I took required effort because of my reliance on logic. I had to do each step of the learning process, which became unenjoyable. If only I can grasp things intuitively, such as information during a lecture, and skip all the mundane and slow work of assimilating abstract concepts, then life would be a breeze.

But that thought process is what led me to be interested in the Integrator. Hearing myths of his impact and the miracles he could perform; maybe he has the answer to receiving things intuitively. Looking online and watching past seminars of his disciples, I came to understand the presumed greatness of the Integrator, but never who he existed as, and whether he would be able to clarify my confusion.

The spark of passion led me to this day; but the long, burning fire may extinguish after this seminar. It would truly be a bore to continue studying in energy engineering if my interest in the Integrator finds its end. Back to the effortful steps I must take to gather field jargon and correlate it with my understanding of the world. There has to be a way to listen and communicate better than our current methods, so I sought answers in these disciples’ seminars.

They were held annually on Integration Day to update humanity on technological achievements, milestones, or to uplift our spirits through a history lesson. Each of the recordings contained information from different disciples because of their niche expertise, so I always assumed there was something new to learn. Something that hopefully closes the circle of information I’ve gathered and would send me on a new adventure.

That’s what I want—a new adventure. I don’t want to remain in a stagnant life where the same old logic is being used without rest.

A good whack on my head brought my attention back to the café clamor. “Staring into the abyss again? Let’s go—it’s time.”

 I sat at the front row of the angled lecture hall with Ruyo next to me; both of our elbows were placed on a rectangular, oak table that spanned and stopped before the stairs on both ends of the hall.

I looked around and the hundreds of seats were mostly filled with faces young and old, all with various coloration of winter attire. Looking back at the front, there was an oval, wooden stage where the disciple stood. He was swiping his fingers on a thin tablet atop a podium.

The wall behind him was flat and white until it grayed from the slight dimming of lights. Right as the projector displayed the screen on the wall behind him, he spoke in front of the podium’s mic.

“Welcome all to the annual public seminar on Integration Day! I am History Professor Daniel Lorraine and will be talking about the period between segregation and integration of humanity which I call the integration phase.

“After forty years, it is time we look back and notice how far we progressed as a species. This talk will last for an hour, so I will do my best to cover a wide range of topics before everyone is dismissed for the rest of the afternoon.”

Applause erupted throughout the hall with a distinctly loud popping sound to my left. Turning to the sound, Ruyo’s arms extended to my face and was whipping his palms together. I gave him a nice jab to his side as he recoiled back into his seat. Revenge.

The discordant claps dwindled to silence before the voice at the podium initiated the beginning of humanity’s evolutionary story.