Following Haori, they went down the same path Raphael had taken Ryo through. Turning left, revealing the door to Xianye's office, the hallway dimly lit.

Clack!

Haori opened the door, a warm light flooded the dimly lit hallways. 

As the door fully lay open, he was immediately met by the sight of a man sitting on an office chair, directly in front of him, as Haori now stood to his far left.

The man's black eyes were deep, staring at Ryo with no particular expression. He wore a red tee and a pair of blue jeans. "Come in already." He leaned back on his chair. 

Walking forward, more figures became visible. A casually dressed man with cream colored hair. And, a familiar face to his left, a peridot-green pupiled man, the only one to wear formal alongside Haori, a white shirt, tucked into a pair of khakis, behind him hung a beige trench coat, presumably his.

As he entered the room, he came to a conscious realization that the flooring in Squad 8 Headquarters was very different from his home, there were no floorboards, instead it was a singular, large slab of a black ceramic tile covering the entire floor.

Clack!

Ryo pushed the door, shutting it and braced himself for what was to come. Even he did not know what he would be met by, only that he should be careful. 'This is...' An overwhelming sensation violated his senses. 

'That person in front... He's... The Squad Leader, Xianye. And then the man to left is Raphael, the person I met yesterday, and Squad Eight's only core member with... a healing capability! Then...' He looked around, his mind quickly recapping on the known knowledge about the current Squad 8, from their personalities to their powers.

Suddenly, he came to a realization, 'Ah!... The reason why I didn't hear Haori's steps, startling me... Is because she was a assassin... However, isn't that only her Genesis that allows her to do that... ' 

As his mind continued to try to be rational, Ryo's heartbeat had begun to thump louder and faster, betraying the attempt of rationality, one could even see the illusory sweat dripping from stress!

"Welcome to Squad Eight. I am Xianye, the Squad Leader..." Xianye was the one to break the silence which had lasted for only a minute but had felt like an eternity to Ryo. 

"It seems you already know who I am, and it seems you know everyone else here." He added as he studied Ryo's expression. 

Such a sudden deduction had left Ryo shocked entirely, a chill ran down his spine. He had accurately predicted Ryo's knowledge! 

'Did he make a guess, but it's probably not the answer to why he knew about what I know about Squad Eight, otherwise he wouldn't have spoken with this confidence, Lord Third told him...? It could be...'

'I lived in Sector Nine, so I shouldn't know about Sector Six since it's so far away, I didn't keep myself up-to-date with the news, my only source being Mori.'

'It's probably Lord Third.' Ryo suddenly recalled the reason for his failure in The Final Selection Simulation, his eyes twitched as he snapped back to reality, all while silently critisizing himself. 

Almost three second had passed since Xianye had made the deduction, after that, silence had fallen. No one spoke a word. All staring at Ryo with different gazes. Yoru with an amusing gaze, Haori with a quiet gaze, Raphael and Xianye with an indiscernible gaze.

Ryo pursed his lips and confirmed, "Yes, I do know about... everyone else here..."

Xianye nodded and said, "Well then, you should introduce yourself now." 

After a few seconds, Ryo framed an introduction and began, "H- Hello everybody. I am Ryo. Originally from Sector Nine, I was born and raised there, I have no parents, only a guardian, who is also the Overseer Of All Simulation Examinations." Ryo had added the fact that his guardian was Mori, to not himself sound overly appealing towards any emotions. And it had worked, as none of the expressions had changed. Their gazes remaining the same, expressing the same. 

"I was able to awaken my Impulse when I was young. I've registered it in the Index of Impulses as, Molecular Perception. As the name may explain already, I can see things on a molecular-level." 

He'd finished his introduction successfully!

There was a quiet silence for a second or two, before Yoru hesitantly asked, "You said your parents were dead. Was it they... uhm..." Yoru did not say it out loud, yet, but everyone had understood what he meant to imply, as Xianye's gaze became fierce and glared at Yoru, before returning to calmly stare at Ryo.

"No... Or, so I think at least. I don't have too many memories from that time. And, I would prefer not to remember either." He replied to Yoru's curious question as best as he could. 

Xianye sighed and apologized, "Sorry about him." Getting up he moved around the desk, and leaned back. "Well, let me explain you the purpose of Squad Eight in detail. Well, its current purpose..." 

Ryo nodded as Xianye continued thereafter. "Squad Eight, as you may already know is the only Squad present currently on Earth. The others are all stationed in various Planetary Sectors. So, we work with the Communications and Informations department, unofficially of course."

"We're mostly a separate unit, really. We focus on authenticating relics, studying findings, and we are also the ones who are sent the recordings of every battle taking place currently, to study, and to see anything which can benefit us, or if one is violating the Resistance Acts!"

He concluded his explanation and paused before adding a few more questions before Ryo could say anything or even nod. "Do you know Fragmented Tongue? Do you remember Resistance Acts? And lastly, how good are you combat skills?" 

Ryo instantly replied with, "No, I do not know Fragmented Tongue, or remember Resistance Acts... Well, not all of them. And, I'm... decent at combat, for an individual with only an Impulse." 

His voice was hesitant and fearful, however Xianye didn't pay any attention. He thought for a while and ordered, "Alright then. For now, we'll be focusing on your studies. Raphael will be helping you remember Resistance Acts, while Haori will help you in learning Fragmented Tongue. As for combat training, Yoru will take care of it, as I will be teaching you history, since you do need it for better study of relics and artifacts, which may even end up serving as an advantage." 

Ryo and everyone in the room quietly nodded.

"Well, let's go have some breakfast for now." Xianye said as he stopped leaning.