Rank Differences

The rank test for the freshers has finally ended. After everyone has been assigned his rank with a digital glowing display on the wrist, the gathering was dismissed by Mrs. Black.

"Congratulations to the first-years. You have really proven yourself well. With hardwork and consistency, you will rank higher than what you are now. Make proper use of your time here in the academy, and stronger shall you get.

"Congratulations once again. Be gentle as you walk back to your dorms. The service bots have already dropped your uniforms in your respective rooms, and you're advised to put them on during school hours. Good luck."

After a moment of pushing and shoving down the hall, everyone finally got out dispersing in different directions to their rooms. From the first main building in the academy, the first-year building can be seen directly from the entrance. The second-years go theirs to the right, and the third-years to the left.

The corridor was buzzing with conversations on the last event in the hall. Most of the talks was centred around Jade Morningbolt and Seven Howell. Some even talked about Lam, the Impossible and the other three Impossible students that was discovered that day.

Nobody talked about Leo and he was grateful for that. Seems everyone is only interested in the strongest and the weakest. Some people already tried getting closer to Jade and his other powerful friends but got snubbed with either a stare or a dirty wave of the hand. 

Jade's circle of friends include Silver who Leo has already met, Alex who controls Earth, and Zach who has the body hardening quirk. But there was someone else nobody expected to see in their midst, and that was a short boy named Joffrey who had the speed quirk.

Joffrey is a D-Ranker, so nobody expected to see him walking freely with the "Big Four" as they are fondly called. But Leo already knew why he was with them.

Earlier when Silver told Jade that he found a boy fit for target practice, Leo knew this was who they were talking about. He also knew the reason they chose him was because he's fast, and trying to hit him while running can prove difficult. So, he's the ideal Mutant to help them improve their quirk's accuracy.

So, Joffrey wasn't really their friend but a toy in their hands. It was strange how the boy can be seen smiling and cracking jokes easily with them. Leo felt pity for him, he probably didn't know what he's into.

"But if they wanted to improve their accuracy, why can't they just use the humanoid robots which increases its evasive speed as time goes by?" Leo wondered.

Since Mrs. Black already said any student willing to practice personally against the bots can come sign up at the staff room and granted a pass, but only on weekends.

"Well, maybe weekends alone is just too small for them. They needed something that will be available everytime they called. And that should be Joffrey, the D-Rank speed boy."

Leo looked beside him for Lam, but he has disappeared amidst the crowd of studens. He didn't bother calling out to him because it's a waste of time. He'll wait for him at at the entrance of his floor.

He wants to see him before going in. Lam wasn't himself again since his performance at the quirk test. The laughter and the boos has affective him psychologically. Not that he didn't expect it, but finally witnessing it, he wasn't really prepared for the outcome.

"For now we're the same, Lam," Leo said to himself. "I only cheated while you took the test head on. But sorry Lam, I will discover my quirk again and get stronger, and you'll still remain an Impossible. You just have to deal with it."

Leo checked his wrist for the hundredth time since he got his rank. The letter D was luminous through his wrist, giving a little pulse as he looked. By all right, he was supposed to get an E-Rank at best, but here he was gawking over the D-rank after carefully using the device Loca gave him.

For now, he'd escape bullying from other D-rankers and some sensible C-rankers, but the same can't be said of the much higher ones with the B- and A-rankers. Except from Seven Howell, nobody from the freshers got an S-rank. The highest was A and it wasn't really common but it was still a lot compared to the former set of freshers. About quarter of the class got the B-rank making it the most dominant rank among the freshers. Leo figured even if he tried to stay well hidden, he can't hide from that many B-rankers for long.

As he waited at the second floor's entrance for Lam, he heard a bunch of students say a man called Sunslayer was in the academy presently. Immediately, every student who heard that statement ran straight back towards the lobby to see if Sunslayer was really here.

Leo was confused at the sudden change in direction. He had no clue who Sunslayer was and he didn't see any reason why one had to behave that way because of a single person.

Since Leo had been in a coma for 78 years, he didn't know much about how earth has turned, how it had been guided by the so called League of Avengers and what influence the Avengers had on the other weaker mutants.

He walked over to the nearest window and peeped out into the open field. That was when he saw what the students were fawning about.

On the ground was the unmistakable figure of Seven Howell lying still, and around him was Hunter Man, Optimus, Alpha, and a red man standing over them all, tall and imposingly awesome. He knew this was Sunslayer since he has never seen him since he arrived at the academy.

"Now I see why they are going crazy about him," Leo said. "And it seems Seven has finally been defeated, but by who?"

"Woaahhhh, My Sunslayer. Oh my chest, he looks so handsome even from afar!..."

Leo turned sharply to see who was speaking beside him. It turned out to be a brown-haired girl who didn't even care that Leo was there by the window before her. She was too fascinated by the figure of the man below that Leo didn't exist to her at that moment.

Leo tried to remember where he had seen her apart from the test arena. Then he remembered. She was the one who stepped into the blue portal coldly as the first volunteer back on Luxus when they were preparing to travel back to Earth. Her calm and cold action had encouraged the other students to step in as well.

Before Leo could say anything, he checked her wrist first to see what rank she got. It was a C-rank.

Well, fair...

"A-hem!" Leo coughed slightly to get her attention. "Excuse me, but you just pushed me away from my spot."

Leo's voice brought her out of her trance. She turned properly to see who was addressing her. It was like she had no idea someone was here before. Like a customary action, she looked at Leo's wrist before she could react. Leo seeing that she was looking at the letter on his wrist, thought she was going to treat him dirty after finding out she was stronger. But instead, she said:

"Aw, I'm really sorry about that. I was carried away. I didn't mean to do that."

Leo was so shocked he couldn't even move his mouth to reply.

"I see you're still cross. Come let us go see Sunslayer together on the field. The door has been locked to keep us in, but I know a way to get there. Let's go." As she said that, she grabbed Leo by the sleeve and dragged him with her while she ran. Leo had no option but to follow. This wild turn of event didn't follow the regular pattern that he had thought earthlings follow.

An average C-ranker can of course have things to do with a D-ranker but it was not so common. Whenever they ever meet, it was mostly as a result of the C-ranker bullying the D-ranker or maybe some little brawl against each other. But a C- dragging a D-ranker to follow her watch a scene together? Leo could never have imagined that.

"...Run Leo. We have to get there fast."

"What? How did she know my name?"