Leuko - Blind to the Sunlight

Chapter 15: We Can Smell the Money

Soon after her speech, we heard a loud tremor that would almost make some of us lose our balance if we weren't all sitting on our chairs.

The reason for this tremor was obvious, it was simply the effect of the giant gate covering the entrance of the barrier of Zenith Academy slowly opening to reveal another pair of stairs that were suspended into the air.

The stairs led directly to the suspended academy's main door, even if at this point it would be wiser to call it a castle instead of a school due to its look. 

"Now, without any further ado, I will guide you inside to show you your new home!" Geeta announced as she left the stage to put herself in front of the open gate.

The children looked at each other before rising from their seats and calmly standing in front of Geeta.

"I wonder why they had to make the academy float in the air?" Asked Cynthia in curiosity.

"I don't know…because it looks cool?"

Cynthia nodded at my explanation. "Make sense." She said before also rising from her seat. "Now, we can't allow others to be ahead of us, can we?" 

"…yes…we can."

Cynthia pouted before taking my hand and dragging me toward the group. "No time for technicality!" 

The moment we arrived, Geeta was still standing still while everyone was looking at her confused.

But I noticed another kind of expression, the one of fear. All of those came from the people who were looking at me, some even tried to distance themselves from my position.

I tilted my head in confusion at their reaction but decided to ignore it. 

I've been long used to this reaction, so it didn't bother me. They also didn't scream like the people of the Sanctuary had been doing, which made it way better.

Suddenly, Geeta coughed in her mouth to gather our attention. "Now, I know all of you are quite excited to visit every single corner of your new home, but I have to ask you for some patience. The layout of the academy is extremely complex, so it would be very easy for you to lose yourself inside this establishment. For the time being, contempt yourself with following behind me." 

Geeta looked at everyone's reaction, and after reassuring herself that we understood her, she turned around and walked toward the floating stairs.

"Hey Luciel." Cynthia murmured into my ear. "What do you say that we discover every inch of the academy instead?" She said with a smirk, but I shook my head at her proposition.

"No, she said to follow behind her and not search every corner inside the academy."

"But that's why I want to do it!" Cynthia insisted, but before I could disagree, Pandora moved on my shoulder.

"Mi, mi, kyu ryu. (Tch, you're already trying to get my friend in trouble, and you said you want to protect him better than me, how laughable.)" He said in a mockery tone.

Cynthia tilted her head and looked at me for a translation. "Oh, he said that you were going to put me in trouble, which means you're doing a bad job at protecting me."

Cynthia looked flabbergasted. "You…you…I will show you how wrong you are! Luciel! Let's follow every rule she told us! Whatever they may be!" 

"But didn't you…"

"Then you must be wrong! Let go Luciel! We don't want to lose them!" Cynthia took my arm and dragged me to the stairs.

I didn't even have the time to notice the weird feeling I felt when I was walking on them, as we were already at the top, to notice the sight of the entrance.

"Incredible!"

"Wow! How much did this cost?"

"…that's…a little too much."

I heard some people pushing gaps of surprise toward the sight in front of, and I understood them, as even my progenitor throne room paled in comparison to this simple entrance. 

The interior of the academy didn't contrast the exterior at all, as it was as, if not more lavish than the outside appearance. 

The room was in cubic shape with two door-shaped holes at the end of the room that were both placed in opposite directions yet remained perfectly symmetric with each other.

The walls were covered by white marble, but these ones were polished enough to make it shine. As for the floor, it was made out of an extremely dark marble that absorbed the light of the wall.

On the ceiling was installed a gigantic gold chandelier hanging perfectly in the center of the room with each extremity having some sun shaped ornament on it extremity that produced the light to cover the whole room.

In the back of the middle of the room was a counter with a type of wood that was the same color as the wall, but the desk was made out of gold and shinned across the room. Behind it was a regular employee who was currently smiling while handing every kid coming toward her some candies.

But I was not interested in that, instead, I was interested in the tainted glass right behind her. The art depicted a very unusual tale, it was a gigantic white being with 17 plates of different colors. Revolving around it. It stood with grace and power, taking most of the space inside the window, yet it still wasn't the focus of it, instead, it was a puny little seed that was slowly growing in front of the being. Such a tiny life couldn't hold up to the majesty of the creature, yet he seemed completely captivated by its existence like it was ready to protect it even if it had to lay down its life for it to grow.

How disgusting.

I turned away my gaze from this disgusting sight to look at Geeta instead. "This is the entrance of the academy, each time you want to leave the academy grounds, you will have to report to the reception," Geeta announced when suddenly she saw a hand raise among the little crowd. "Yes, what's your question, young girl?"

"Sorry miss, but what is the art supposed to mean?" A little girl with purple hair pointed at the tainted glass with an interrogative look.

Geeta nodded before answering. "First, do not apologize for asking a question, you are here to learn after all, we don't want you to be ashamed to grow after all." She gently said, but the girl still blushed. "As for your real question, sadly I do not have the answer for it, as its creator never explained to me its real meaning, but I do know the name of the art. It is called «Hope of the Naive»." Geeta explained, and the girl who asked the question nodded before noting it inside her notebook.

"If there are no other questions, then follow me, I will present you the path to your dorm, so please make sure to memorize it." Geeta announced before walking toward the left of the room where a passage was installed to allow us to enter deeper inside the building.

The corridor was wide enough to accommodate all of us easily with room for more. The walls of the corridor were also decorated with other tainted glass, but none that were as well made as the one in the front.

Even the girl with purple hair didn't ask for more information about them, only contented herself to admire them.

We didn't walk for very long, yet we already reached the end of the hallways just to be presented with another set of stairs scaling up to the second floor. They were so big that they almost covered the entirety of the room, they were made out of black crystal with a ramp made out of white diamond on its side. Yet I noticed that we could still walk beside them, so there must be more room over there. What I didn't know, and as Geeta didn't mention anything, then it must not be important.

They really like stairs here, don't they? They put them everywhere! Do they know how exhausting it is to climb them? I need to control manually one of my legs to keep all the weight while the other one needs to be raised to meet the next step, each single time! It's annoying!

But my complaints weren't heard, and I had to climb it…hurg, all of these shining wastes and no way to climb the stairs easily?

When I arrived on the second floor, I expected more useless decorations that were only there to flaunt the wealth of the academy, yet it was looking more modest than I expected. Not to say it looked poor now, the floor still looked way better than the throne room of my progenitor, but it still looked less expensive as the lower floor.

For example, instead of the golden chandelier, there were some orange balls inserted in the roof that glowed strong enough to cover the whole room, yet it still didn't blind us…

Suddenly, I felt the sensation of my skin burning and immediately covered myself with my umbrella.

Did they take the sun and put it inside the academy? 

It must really have been stupid to fall into their trap.

"This is the second floor, this is where most of your recreation occupation will be set. You will have more time to learn about them later, but to mention a few, there is a cinema center, a commercial hall filled with different stores of your liking, a battle center, the care center, a library, and most importantly, the cafeteria." Geeta said while pointing at a place with a huge billboard depicting a group of pokemon eating some berries with joy that was placed just above a hallway. 

Someone raised their hand in hesitation. "Heu…miss…what…how will we pay?"

"First of all, please wait for me to name you before asking your question. But as for the other, may I presume that you're talking about what the price you will have to pay to get access to these installations would be?"

The kid froze before nervously nodding nervously. 

"Excellent question, first, every merchandise sold here will need to be bought with Sun Point, a currency exclusive to this academy. This money will be instantly transferred to your personal phone for multiple reasons, such as getting a good grade, succeeding in an exam, or doing a good action, but we are also allowed to remove them if you ever misconduct, so be warned." Geeta explained while surveying the group to be sure everyone understood when a girl with pink hair…no blue hair…both, raised her hand.

"Yes, Iono?"

"Howdowemakeourphonework? Itdidn'tworksincewegothere!" Iono exclaimed extremely rapidly that I barely understood what she said.

"Ah, you would learn that soon, do not worry…

"I doworryIcouldn'taccessmyphonefor48hours! 48hours withouttalkingtomyfan 48hourswithoutanycutevideo of…" 

"I understand, but could you please wait just a little bit more?" 

"…but…my phone...ah…cruel world..." She said meekly while looking at a weird black box...wait, is that what they call a phone? I thought it was supposed to be looking big and that it was practically impossible to bring with you. No wonder it broke!

"Thanks, so as I was saying, these points will be useful to buy everything that interests you, however, every essential product to your well-being will be free of course, this applies to medical institutes for example. But most importantly, we will exceptionally offer each of you more points than what was initially planned. The reason why is that your number is also lower than what we actually planned, and they are exactly as planned, which means they want to lower it the most before it is too late…also to the ones that were armed because of the Drattak or of Volo, you get to have infinite point for the all of your years." She said calmly, but it created a stupor in front of me, some seemed excited for some reason.

Right after, three hands raised themselves.

"We don't need this advantage miss."

"As he says, our injury was caused by our own folly, their no need to reward this."

"And…and it was my fault in the first place…I'm already honored that I got accepted, I cannot dare ask more."

Geeta sighed before responding to these demands. "You're all 13 years old, in no shape, or form can we adults allow ourselves to put the blame on you for being unable to fight or escape a Drattak attack. This was our responsibility, and we failed it, this is why we are compensating you to pay the damage you suffered because of our negligence."

"Sorry 'bout that, miss, but I'll not have any advantage over my rival. If I'm to beat him, it'll be 'cause we were fair from the start, plain and simple!"

"My reason is different from his, but the spirit stays the same, I do not wish for any exaggerated advantage for this situation, give me another compensation that isn't beyond what others will have."

Geeta seemed pensive for a moment before nodding. "Very well, I will find something else that will compensate you that doesn't give you an unfair advantage.

"Euh…for me too…" Yellow asked timidly.

"You're is none negotiable, you've received an injury too grave for us to ignore, anything less than that would cause problems to our reputation." Geeta responded to her, leaving no place for any objection.

Oh, she lied.

Yellow looked surprised, before slowly lowering her arm. "I see…sorry for causing you problem."

Geeta silently looked at her before sighing and looking at…me?

"Do you also have any demand?"

Suddenly everyone was looking at me in confusion.

I don't blame them, I was as confused as them. I didn't get harmed by a Drattak…not like any could have harmed me in the first place…then is she referencing Volo? But he didn't harm me?

…do they consider kidnapping me as harming me? Well that's a stretch.

But if they really want to give me compensation…infinite money sounds…big.

Maybe I can buy a lot of things with this, and then I could use these things to convince others to be friends with me! That's sound awesome!

Wait, would these shopkeepers accept to sell things to me? Those I knew would only throw their merchandise at me in order to make me flee and I barely had the time to pay them before I had to flee.

Mmmh, they should, at worst I could ask Cynthia to…no, I can't ask my friend to help me, that not how friendship works.

"Well if you have any demands, please share them with me." She said to me, making me realize I didn't respond to her question…at least she isn't mad. "Now is there any other question?"

Suddenly, Cynthia raised her hand and waited for Geeta to answer her. "Yes miss Cynthia?"

"Can we make Volo pay for all of our starting points?" Cynthia continued.

Geeta silently looked at her, and most of the group was also looking at her as if she was crazy.

"…usually I would discipline you on the malpractice of fraud…but he would deserve it, so I will allow this remark just this time."

"So does that mean…

"No, we will not transfer thisexpense to Volo account."

"Tch." 

"….Volo? They can't possibly…no…that's absurd." I heard someone murmuring, I looked at him in confusion.

He was a tall boy with spiking red hair. His face was sharp with red eyebrow that were currently frowning. He was wearing a leather-red jacket over a black outfit with orange stripes. He also had a red cape right hanging out from his shoulder. I could see he was deeply thinking about something, yet couldn't arrive at the answer yet.

The only reason why I even bothered to notice him was because he gave me an impression of danger, nothing life-threatening, but the type I would feel toward my progenitor.

Next to him was a girl wearing a one-piece suit that didn't even cover her shoulder and ended above her knee, the outfit was also obviously extremely tight as if it wanted to showcase every curve of her body. She also wore a chocker containing a pearl as an ornament. She tied her cyan hair behind in a ponytail and looked extremely concerned about the red-haired boy.

Mmmh…they look like they want to know things about Volo, and I know thing about him, which means I can use that to become friends with them!

But before I could call them out, Geeta continued to speak. "Now, this place has another use, this is the entrance to your dorm." She said while pointing toward the wall where a golden door had a small pokemon egg in its center.

It was easy to notice that right beside it, were similar-looking doors, but with a different motif in the center. 

"This will be how you access your dorm." Geeta explained as she opened the door to lead us to…

…more stair…

I want to scream.

…but that is considered impolite…so I won't…but not because I don't want to.

I'm starting to consider who is the worst tortured between this academy and my progenitor…okay it's my progenitor. It can't compare to when they pushed me down some stairs and forced me to climb back despite my broken bone, just to push me again.

But still! It's like they are trying their best to reach his level, my leg is still broken! It's just I can move it now!

"Now you look angry Luciel, your halo is going crazy…is everything fine?"

"…stair…" Was the only thing I responded to before walking with the group to join them.

But suddenly, I felt someone taking me by my shoulder. 

Pandora barely had the time to look behind me just to see Cynthia grinning at me.

"Well if you don't want to answer, then you lose your walking privilege!"

Without any warning, Cynthia raised me in the air before putting me sideway in her arm.

…eh? Is that…a princess carry?

What is she…what…will she throw me? Break my leg?

I wanted to ask for an explanation, but I only saw Cynthia as confused as me. "You're way lighter than I thought?" Oh, it wasn't for the same reason as me then.

But Cynthia just shrugged, before climbing the stairs.

Oh…OH! Oh no! She suffering from these abominable stairs! Is she doing this because…mmmh…I don't know.

Some people also threw us weird looks as she climbed the stairs, some even looked at me with disgust.

Yeah I know, I made my friend suffer for me, I'm a disgrace. Shame me!

"Tch, you're not even looking embarrassed," Cynthia said while sulking. "Usually Volo did that when I was being, as he called it, a brat."

What does she mean I'm not embarrassed!? I'm the personification of shame right now!

Pandora, look at me!

I didn't say anything, but Pandora still understood my intent and looked at my face.

Let's see, my face is currently expressionless, my cheeks are completely white, but my arms are slightly raised! I'm clearly embarrassed!

Cynthia then deposed me in disappointment, was she really that mad that I wasn't embarrassed enough…will try to look more embarrassed next time then…how do I do that? I think it have something to do with blood in my head…

I looked behind me, just to see we were installed in an intersection that was separated by a wall that only opened in the middle from both sides…and more stairs!!!

WHY!!!?

But

"Welcome dear student to your news habitation quarter, the Neonate Tower." Geeta said in a grandiose tone. "Now, each of you will be given a card that will confirm your identity inside this academy, but it will also allow you to enter your room." 

She suddenly snapped her hand and a small pokemons suddenly appeared from the corner of the room and looked at us with excitation.

They looked like a melted pound of metal with a golden hexagonal nut instead of a head with a little black sphere floating inside it to serve as its eye. But the most important thing to mention was that they were extremely small, I'm sure I could fit one inside my palm without problem.

They all started to flow toward us, and before we could any of us could react, they climbed our body to reach our hand. 

Despite their small stature they still were surprisingly fast.

Well except me, as mine looked at me fearfully from the ground, not even daring to climb on me. It even looked like it was slowly backing off…too slow sadly, as Pandora formed a hand to pick him up and put him on my hand.

The moment it arrived here, it trembled so much that I was wondering if his little black ball would fall off…can it?

Weirdly, it started to tremble even more.

"Haha! Welcome weird one!" Cynthia exclaimed with joy while it was looking at mine with concern…wait? How did I detect that? They don't have any face?

Don't you find it weird Pandora? How can I read emotion from pokemon that doesn't have obvious expression?

I thought while looking at Pandora's eye that was dissimulating under a costume.

"Kyu." 

"Oh, make sense."

Yeah, that explains a lot of things.

"So cute. What type of pokemon are they?" I asked the girl in yellow while putting the Pokemon inside her hand and trying to pet it, but I realized she couldn't because of her missing hand.

"These are Meltan, little pokemon that will be in charge of assisting you in any task or advertising us for any problem. Tell yourself that most of our technology works because of these little guys, so make sure to take care of them." She said while also grabbing one in her hand to showcase him.

"My apologies Dean, but how are these feeble creatures supposed to help us?"

"Very simple, didn't someone ask how they could use their phone? Well here's the answer."

Suddenly, the Meltan inside her hand started to morph until it became rectangular shaped.

"OhmyArceus! Theyarephones! Myvieweraregoingtolovethis!" The girl with the weird hair said even faster than before, clearly excited about the situation.

But I was left confused…how these things can be phones?

I looked at mine, but he didn't seem to morph…weird…maybe it need help!

"Pandora, can you help him morph into a rectangle?" 

"Kyu." Pandora agreed and materialized two claws and slowly approached them toward the pokemon.

But it only started to tremble even more…what does that mean? Is mine just like to tremble?

"Please don't." Suddenly, a voice in front of me interrupted me, making Pandora stop his action.

I looked in front of me to see the concerned face of a boy with green hair.

Ah! It is the king of…Unova? Right, this guy…but what does he want? 

"You're making him afraid, please don't." The boy continued with an expressionless voice.

Oh…so he is scared! But why?

I looked back at the Meltan inside my hand, just to see it starting to tremble less while looking at the king.

…am I scary? I thought I was cute! Is Cynthia lying to me?! 

Suddenly, the Meltan morphed into a rectangular shape and slowly rested on my hand. His head was still there, it was just hovering over the screen while looking at me.

I looked back in front of me, just to see that the King decided to ignore me…

…he thinks he can escape my friendship?

"Meltan will allow you to not only contact your other friends but also keep track of your schedule, count your points, and even as an alarm to wake you up. But one of the most important and novel creations is that they can be used as a pokedex!" 

"Wait, seriously!? This pokemon is a pokedex, how?"

"They are still so cute! And useful! I will call you Timothy!"

"That's interesting, sorry to have called you feeble."

There was a lot of reaction, but all seemed to be surprised and excited toward their new…phone.

What even is a pokedex actually? Is it a type of pokemon…probably not.

But I wasn't interested in that, I was more interested in the fact I could call my friend instead! Because it means I have friends… that's how it works?

But before I could ask, I could see the Iono girl raising her hand in panic. "MISS, MISS! ICANNOTCONNECTTOMYFAN!!! MYAN!!! YVODAERF!!!" She spoke so quickly that I wasn't even able to understand her last word…if it was even one.

"Please wait for me talking to you first."

"NFMMRTEGWUINCAICTBNRIUFSK ERGFHRBV FSDKG JHTII STBGIDGFI!!!" Weirdly, despite sounding like rubbish, I still think there a correant sentence in what she just said.

"Calm down, everything will be fine."

Iono took a deep breath before looking at Miss Geeta. "Please…tell me there is internet here."

Geeta hesitated for some instant before sighing. "Yes, there's an internet that will allow you to contact everyone with a Meltan." Iono's face suddenly lit up with hope, but they were immediately crushed. "But it is still not possible to contact people from outside this island."

Iono didn't say anything, she only fell on her knee and looked at the floor in horror.

Weird that she did that, the floor doesn't look this horrible…I like it actually, perhaps she has bad taste?

Well, I will deal with later, I will first try to test this phone.

I tried to touch the rectangle to see how it worked when a bright light suddenly emitted from it.

Oh no! The sun was able to infiltrate inside! Alert! Alert!

I tried to drop the sun, but weirdly it didn't want to fall off, as if it attached itself to my hand. And I was right, the pokemon seemed to let some of its melted metal glue itself to my hand!

It was a setup! From the start, they wanted to burn me alive!

Oh no! Welp, desperate time calls for desperate measure! Pandora, cut off my hand!

"Kyu…mimi…kyi…myu? (Calm down… it's not the sun...I think?)"

Eh? I looked back at the screen and indeed, it did not want to burn me. Well, he must be very incompetent then.

"Miky. (Or he didn't want to harm you.)" 

"…oh…" 

I looked more carefully at him when suddenly the phone started to melt and combine itself with my hand, making my hand with an iron coating, yet the golden hexagon still floated above my hand, looking at me warily. 

"Now, it's time to go to your dorm, I will name each of you, then what dorm you will be. You will be allowed to relax a little, but please at least stay in the tower. After this, another instructor will come to get you to introduce you to the celebration feast. Understood?"

No one posed any opposition, which made her node. 

"Good, for the dorm 001, we have…"