Jia walked back to the room, watching the others going farther on the white hall. She sat at her desk, in the back. The man stood next to her.

“Listen, I am so sorry. I didn’t even introduce myself. I am your trainer, Nova Yamada. I was called two days ago by Kanae Vantablack. She said she was your aunt, the sister of Neo Vantablack, whom she said was your father.” He narrowed his eyes a bit. “When you introduced yourself, you said your last name was Skay. That was the first strange thing I noticed. Probably why I kept you here for these few moments.”

Jia looked away for a few seconds. She didn’t know what to add. After all, that was her name, but since Neko adopted her, she was supposed to have introduced herself with his last name not to raise any suspicions. And now, she had no clue how to explain that whole mess. Neko was not Neo and she didn’t even know why she had to call him that or what was between them… And plus, she was aware that Nova might know some more about Vantablack since he was an adult…

She leaned back and forth slowly, as a sign of discomfort and embarrassment. The first thing that came to her mind felt rather wrong to say, but she did anyway to avoid any arguments.

“Well… Umm… Mister Nova… Neo Vantablack is my adoptive father… Can I talk about it later, please…?” she muttered.

Nova sighed and gave her a reassuring smile. He patted her back. He found her a little suspicious. He knew very well who Vantablack was and what he had done even after he left the Devil Killers’ Association… And the fact that he was called by a Kanae girl whom he knew absolutely nothing about made him suspicious of that said ‘Neo Vantablack’ she talked about. After all, he knew that the real Neo Vantablack didn’t have any siblings nor a wife he legally married. (He was infatuated with one of his co-workers, a strong Devil Killer with the Fire power nature that was nearly as strong as him.)

He sighed as he saw Jia was already trembling of embarrassment.

“Alright. Talk to me whenever you feel comfortable. Now, the second thing I need to tell you is not to take the boys seriously. They are still young, stupid and they have no clue what they are saying. So, please, do me a favor and do not try to understand their bullshit.” he added.

Jia nodded as a response. But she couldn’t promise. She was a very curious person after all. Her time spent in Ethereal Forest revealed that fact. She had been very focused with exploring the place; She wanted to know how far it was extending, what magical things were happening there. That night, the glowing trees really had her hypnotized.

Later, as she was led outside in the backyard, she saw everything was turned into a dark mess. Black flames were all around and Zack was, of course, in the middle of the chaos, standing tall, with one leg on Ayato’s back. The crimson haired boy was down, on the ground, covered in ashes and blood. As for the girls, they were in a corner, talking to each other. They were trying to avoid the situation.

Nova, on the other hand, went insane. He yelled in despair, covering his whole face with his palms, moving chaotically. He didn’t know how to manage Zack anymore. After all, that kid had been a problem since he first arrived to that school. He had a habit of acting superior to everyone and Kakashi never understood why. He tried asking Zack about it, but the answer was always the same: ‘why do you care?’ He tried to keep calm whenever he found out of whatever mistake Zack made, yet he couldn’t take it anymore. Zack was awakening his powers and probably, that was influencing his current behavior. But maybe it had something to do with the fact that his mother died…?

That time, Zack took things a bit too far. He beat the hell out of Ayato and devastated the whole area. Nova was left speechless. Jia was still trying to figure out what had just happened and why it did…

Finally seeing their teacher had arrived, the poor girls came running towards them. Komori was out of breath.

“Nova-sensei… We couldn’t stop them… We tried, but… Zack… His power ran out of control…” she mumbled, as she was gasping for air.

Nova’s attention was caught by her words. He gazed at her. He was looking rather concerned than mad now. “His power ran out of control? What power?” he asked.

“The Darkness.” responded Hinata.

Nova looked at Zack once again. He was sitting over Ayato, who was now unconscious. He didn’t seem to be feeling bad nor he was manipulated by that power. He was just that same, annoying, little brat.

“His power ran out of control, you say. Then how do you explain that he is still him? That he is aware of the fact that he did all this?” whispered Nova.

None of the girls really knew what he referred to, but Jia seemed to have understood.

When someone’s power was simply awakening, it would manipulate the person and make it unaware of its actions. Very few were able to avoid that and control their energy in order to master that power. And Zack was, apparently, one of those few people. But the thing was a bit fishy at the middle. The Darkness power was a very dangerous and strong nature of the neon energy and it was usually impossible to control it at its awakening. Same was for the Neon power. It was said that only the people who were born with a very high level of neon energy were capable of controlling those powers.

Jia learnt that from her father two years ago, when he was still part of the Devil Killers’ association. Powerful people who were recruited because of their strong power nature; They were the ones who were qualified to slaughter the monsters of Hell that were coming to the mortal realm to bring chaos. The strongest one, after Neo Vantablack, was Madara Darkshade, but she was said to have died during Night Raid. She was a Darkness user and one of the few people who managed to control that power when it awakened.

After all she had learnt, Jia then realized why she was sent there, to Nexxis School. It was a special base whose objective was to help people get stronger in order to face those threats. But again, one thought came back to her mind. The image of the destroyed city. No demon could have caused that, and, whatever it was, no Devil Killer was powerful enough to face it. So why did it matter? Why was she supposed to do this? As strong as she strived to become, just like all the other people out there, she knew she would not be capable of fighting that thing. Whatever it was.

She had too many things on her mind and she could not bare them all. Yet she had to stay focused on the present, on the reality.

She took another look around. Nova was talking to Zack while Hinata was nursing Ayato. Komori was right next to her, holding Ayato’s hand. She was silently crying; many tears were rolling on her pink cheeks. Jia walked towards them slowly. She analyzed Ayato and saw he was wounded badly. He was still bleeding. The scarlet liquid was spread all over his face and it made him look more damaged than he was for real.

Jia remained silent, only watching. Suddenly, Nova came to their spot to check on Ayato. He was worried. Not just about the boy’s current state, but more about how was he going to explain to the boy’s mother about what happened. Again. The same thing occurred last year and he got in a lot of trouble for it. Zack picked on Ayato for being too weak and he was driven insane by the awakening of his flame power. Technically, he didn’t do that on purpose, but he got his trainer in a lot of crap.

Now, Zack was sitting behind Nova, watching Hinata. He was silent. After all, he didn’t want to make things worse than they already were. He didn’t want to kill any of his teammates, but being annoying and teasing them was his only form of entertainment, there was no doubt about it. There had to be a reason behind it though. It would be absurd to assume that he was doing all that just because he had nothing to do. He wanted attention; that attention he was possibly just not getting at home. And maybe he was just bothered because his mother’s passing… But even so, there still had to be someone to look after him…? Right…?

Much later, Ayato was taken to the infirmary to get his injuries treated. As for the others, they went to the training field that was right behind the main building. It was some sort of crystal dome that was covering a huge area. That was the place where they were allowed to fight and test out their powers. The rays of light were creating a spectacular view and all the natural decorations around were making little Jia feel like she had reached the Ethereal Forest once again. But upon seeing the may people that were messing around, fighting and chatting, she began to feel very uncomfortable. That strong emotion of fear hit again; the fear of public shaming. She always had that feeling that people would gossip about her and mock her for who she was at that time, but the truth was that nobody cared at all. Nobody bothered paying attention to her.  

Nova sat down on a small chair close to the entrance and gestured his students to do whatever they wanted. Zack immediately rushed towards a random boy, who was two times his size, and picked up a fight. That would be his most dangerous attempt. Komori and Hinata ran towards a small group of girls from another class further away, but Jia felt scared to go with them. She felt like she was surrounded by a dozen of dark people who would make fun of her for being powerless. She stood next to Kakashi. He glared at her.

“Jia, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing… I… I just don’t feel ready to… embarrass myself…” she responded, with a low voice.

Nova stood up and patted her back.

“Alright. If that is what concerns you, then I will help you out. I will be your ‘opponent’.” He gave the girl a reassuring smile and led her to an empty corner. He wanted her to feel more comfortable.

Jia was now quite nervous. She had no idea how to fight back against anything and she feared that she would never be able to. She seemed to have forgotten what happened that night, when Xena came inside her dorm and hurt her. She forgot about the power that escaped her body. She had not been aware of it and she had not been able to control it. That power acted on its own, defending her. Yet it didn’t go wild like it was supposed to during its awakening. That was a very strange phenomenon that had never occurred before among the people of NEON. There was only one explanation to this: Jia had already awakened that power without knowing and she had it for quite a while. But even so, she was just a seven years old girl and the neon powers were not awakening at younger ages. That was because the children’s bodies were too weak to withstand that amount of energy.

With all those facts being said, the conclusion was clear: the mystery of Jia’s powers led to a paradox; to an impossible answer. And Jia had no idea about it. She had completely forgotten. But finally, the thing was going to be put to the test. That power had to be unleashed again.