Elementalists
Chapter 17 - Inauguration

The contents of Arya's head felt empty, he did not remember what he had done. All he knew right now was that he was lying somewhere where the ceiling was white, could this be heaven? Those were the words that came to his head. His eyes were still twitching and as he tried to raise his head. It felt very heavy, while still adjusting to the light in the room he also tried to turn his head left and right to see the situation around him.

As his ears and eyes began to function properly, he heard someone humming quietly to the right where he was lying. There a woman with black hair and red eyes like a ripe apple on her tree was sitting reading a book and humming softly, he did not realize that Arya was looking at him with her eyes widening.

Arya continued to look at him for a while with wide eyes as if she could not believe what she was seeing, suddenly the humming of Asuna stopped and she laughed a little. There seems to be something funny about the book that makes her laugh and smile, Arya keeps looking at her without blinking. Somehow his heart felt warm to see the woman smiling and laughing wholeheartedly, honestly if he could want time to stop there for good. But that's impossible isn't it.

Soon after, Asuna noticed Arya's vision, she slipped her long hair behind her ears while looking back at Arya with her red eyes. The eyes of the two of them met, the eyes were red and the eyes were blue. Then Asuna tilted her head while saying.

"You...are you awake?" he asked slowly as if he was still doubtful of what he was seeing.

After hearing Asuna's voice suddenly Arya's body felt light, she woke up from her sleeping position and pulled Asuna's hand and hugged Asuna tightly. Because of that sudden movement Asun let out a small scream.

"Kyaa..tu..wait Arya what she means.." he said stammeringly.

"Thank God...thank goodness you're okay" Arya replied before Asuna finished her words.

Then Asuna who was initially shocked and rebellious, after hearing Arya's words she began to stop trying to push Arya's body that was holding her. Then he spoke in a voice that sounded a little strange.

"Hey...isn't our roles changed here? Shouldn't I be the one to tell you that?

"Not really, you'll be unconscious longer than I am. Why is your voice so strange?"

"A.a..what? My voice is normal as usual. Basic, do you know how long you've been unconscious?" ask her in a voice that has returned to normal.

"How long is it?" ask Arya.

"One week"

"really? Has it been that long? Well....but still you're the one who's longer, right? So it's okay if I say that"

"It's up to you, and when are you going to be like this?" asked Asuna while trying to escape from Arya's embrace.

"Please, stay like this for a while" whispered Arya in Asuna's ear.

Arya felt Asuna's body shudder slowly after hearing the whispers from Arya, Asuna stopped rebelling. After being satisfied, Arya let go of her embrace to Asuna and looked at her face. Asuna looked back at him with a red face, after their sight met she covered her mouth with her right hand. He was wearing the sweater he used to wear while relaxing, the sweater was red with a black pattern. She also wears a dress of the same color.

"Why is your face flushed like that? I will not be surprised if soon your ears will emit smoke" said Arya while laughing softly.

"Basic fool!!! who do you think this is because of, huh? Get away there you pervert!!!" asuna shouted while pushing Arya.

"Essum? What have I done to you?" ask Arya wonder.

"Whatever! Anyway you pervert!" asuna.

"Huh?"

"But is your body okay moving that much? You just realized, didn't you?"

Just as Asuna finished saying that Arya felt pain all over her body, the pain made her forced to lie back in her bed. He only realized that his body was full wrapped by bandages, starting from the head, back, hands, and feet. He felt like his bones were being pierced by thousands of needles.

"Aw...why is it suddenly like this? I didn't feel anything" he said, grimacing softly.

"You're the basics" Asuna said as she immediately helped Arya justify her sleeping position.

After Arya had laid down properly Asuna placed the blanket on her and sat back down next to her bed while looking at her with a worried look, Arya tried to move both her hands. But, both of his hands just moved stiffly as if refusing to move so he gave up on moving both hands.

"show? Your condition is no better than mine" said Asuna ketus while puffing her cheek.

"Hahaha it seemed like I was getting carried away" Arya said with a hollow laugh.

Then he remembered it, there was something he wanted to show Asuna when she woke up, then he turned to Asuna and asked.

"Hey where are my clothes?"

"Some clean clothes have already been taken from your room by the Astral Supervisor" Asuna replied as she pointed towards the cupboard in the corner of the room.

"Can you see it for me?

"For what? Don't tell me you want to take a walk out with such a body condition" Asuna replied with a threatening look.

"I wouldn't do such a stupid thing, please Asuna please" Arya said.

After arguing for a while, Asuna finally relented and immediately headed for the closet where Arya's clean clothes were placed.

"Is my jacket there?" ask Arya.

"You mean this musty blue jacket?" asuna answered while lifting up Arya's jacket.

"What do you mean by a moth? That's my favorite jacket"

"Yes-yes whatever you say, but I think it's just a seedy jacket"

"Whisper! Please get me what the jacket pockets"

Then Asuna did as Arya said, he reached into the pocket of Arya's jacket and took a small accessory in the form of two small orange balls with several strands of red hair hanging on the bottom. After taking the hanger Asuna also thrust the object at Arya, but Arya did not take it.

"That's for you" Arya said calmly.

"HUH?! What's this thing for? and why did you give it to me?"asuna asked with an annoyed face.

"That's a keychain" Arya replied casually.

"I also know that it's a keychain! But I mean look at this weird shape and why did you give it to me?"

"It's a gift for your recovery, I made it myself"

"Eh? A bounty? For me? You made it?" asuna asked while looking at Arya and the hanger in turn.

"Yep, I made it while you were still unconscious. Actually I was planning to give it to you when you woke up but it seems like a failure because I myself also experienced the same thing as you" Arya said while trying to answer Asuna's questioning gaze.

Asuna was silent for a while as she continued to look at the hanger.

"I don't understand the strange shape of this thing at all" Asuna finally said.

"The two little balls symbolize me and you, and the red hair comes from the minotaur hair that we defeated in the first stage Trials"

"So this red hair came from the minotaur back then?" ask Asuna.

"That's right, so I made it for you as a memento so you can remember how we both worked together to solve a problem. In this case yes minotaur" explained Arya.

"But this thing is still weird, and why did you get to pick up this minotaur hair all the time?" asuna said as she stared at the thing blankly.

"Ahh noisy! It was accidentally that there were some strands attached to my expression, if you don't like it here return it" Arya said as she thrust her hand.

Asuna quickly removed the hanger from Arya's hand and hid it in her hand.

"You can't take any more of the stuff you gave to others, even if it's weird that I'm going to take. I'm happy, thank you" Asuna said as she turned her face away from Arya.

"A.a.a.I don't want to say that from the start! This thing is really strange indeed" Asuna protested.

"It's up to you, I'm so tired of wanting to sleep. Please take care of me huh Hime-sama" Arya said with a smile and closed her eyes.

After Arya fell asleep, Asuna rubbed Arya's white hair with the back of her right hand. Then he brought his lips closer to Arya's ear and whispered.

"Good sleep, thank you for the gift"

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The next day after learning that Arya has been reassured by Allucia's superintendent to do a final check on her and allow her to leave the treatment room, Arya leaves the treatment room early in the morning. He did not meet anyone else while walking towards the dormitory, but when he got to the intersection to go to the dormitory he suddenly turned in the opposite direction.

"Why go back to the dorm? Isn't it time for breakfast soon?" arya said while muttering to herself.

He walked towards the canteen with steady steps, but as he had expected the canteen was still empty in the early morning like this. So he immediately sat down the chair that had been prepared while waiting for the canteen managers to cook breakfast that morning, some time later appeared Supervisor Gustav while carrying some cooking ingredients from the warehouse.

He looked surprised to see that there were already people waiting for breakfast that early, after knowing that it was Arya he immediately approached her and invited her to talk for a while. Then he immediately headed to the kitchen to prepare food for Arya and the others, the canteen managers had started to arrive, in just a few minutes the room was filled with the delicious aroma of the food being cooked.

The workers at the Research Center had also arrived, they all seemed busy with their own documents. Right after Aryan's food was served and the other Elementalists began to arrive, the male Elementalists immediately approached him and gleefully beat him up. Overzealous Timothy patted Arya's back hard (which he countered with a hard kick to Timothy's shin).

A few minutes later the female Elementalists came after them, the girls greeted Arya and asked her how she was, except for Asuna and Elizabeth. Asuna already knew the situation yesterday so she did not have to ask anymore, but Elizabeth excitedly just grabbed Arya from behind so that she frowned in pain due to her wounds that felt open due to the embrace.

"Mmm Elizabeth can you let Arya go? You can make her wounds reopen" Asuna protested with an annoyed expression.

"really? I'm sorry, Arya, I didn't mean it that way. I'm just glad you're better" Elizabeth replied, drawing her face closer to Arya.

"Sister?! Since when did he call you.." repeated Asuna while throwing a look of disbelief at Arya.

Debate between the two began to occur, Kevin and Timothy who were initially sitting flanking Arya was removed by Asuna and Elizabeth. The two of them race to help Arya eat her breakfast, and Arya bravely swears to see a little spark as Asuna and Elizabeth's gazes meet in the air. Arya could only sigh deeply, she then looked at Zayn who was sitting across from her desk.

His condition was almost the same as Arya, his body was filled with bandages. But from what Arya heard today she will take off the bandages.

"How are you doing?" ask Arya at last.

"As you can see" Zayn replied as he moved his arms.

"Looks like you fainted that day, when did you wake up?"

"Two days before you came to your senses" he replied lightly.

"Mmm I wonder why I can pass out longer huh? Maybe because of that technique?" arya said while scratching her head.

"By the way about that technique, how do you do it?" ask Zayn curiously.

"Right, I'm curious too" Kevin said.

"The technique is great but also terrible" said Rena.

"That's right, like wussh and boom." said Lexa.

"You're too much, that technique.

"Not perfect? Such a great technique isn't perfect?" selena asked while tilting her head.

"True, that technique is not mine. At that time I was just trying to make it as similar as possible to the original, and as you can see? My body was burdened because of that technique" Arya explained.

"So that technique isn't yours? What if the technique is done perfectly?" timothy asked while chewing on his breakfast.

"If the technique is done perfectly, the impact of his attack will not spread in all directions as I did. The impact will only impact the target and the slash can be even faster, even so fast the sound of the slash will not be heard"

"What the hell are you talking about?" ask Asuna at last.

"People who don't know anything should not talk" Arya replied.

"Hahaha that's right, you heard that Asuna you better shut up" Elizabeth said happily.

"Huh?! Whatdidyou say? You should also shut up and eat your breakfast so that your growth is not stunted" Asuna sneered.

"My growth is not hampered!!!" elizabeth.

"Oh yes Arya did you know" asked Selena in the midst of the Asuna and Elizabeth debate.

"mmm? About what?"

"The inauguration ceremony will be held in a week"

"Inauguration ceremony? What inauguration?" arya was confused.

"Of course your inauguration to become the chairman of this generation's Elementalist" Selena replied with a smile.

He had almost forgotten that that was the reason he fought Zayn in the final, he won and he would become the head of the other Elementalists. Hopefully it is not as troublesome as it sounds.

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One week later early in the morning they were all getting ready for the inauguration ceremony, Arya and the other male Elementalists got off the dorm together. They joined the female Elementalists who were waiting for them under the stairs, their clothes all looking different this time.

All of them use a uniform (a "tight suit" as Arya calls it) made of a material that is very comfortable to use and can adjust to the size of the user's body, which is very comfortable to use, the uniform is equipped with a hook on the shoulder to hook the robe. The other Elementalists besides Arya had already used their respective robes, the robes were colored according to the elements they had and also had the emblem of the element right in the middle.

Arya did not lose her cloak or how but from what she heard anyway, she would be paired with her robe by the Chief Exam Superintendent that is the Astral Supervisor. That was what would be done to appoint him as the Chief Elementalist, they also walked towards one of the rooms that were right in the middle of the Research Center.

Arya had never come to the room before, it was very spacious and had very high ceilings. From what is seen the room is usually used for formal events, when they arrive it turns out that the place is already very crowded. Everyone there also wore a uniform that symbolized where they came from, such as the witches wearing black robes with high hats and the researchers wearing white suits.

Many people who approached and saved him for successfully becoming the Elementalist Chairman, Arya did not know how to respond so she just thanked him while continuing to smile at all of them. Finally Arya found the Exam Supervisors waiting for them, the ten people were right in the middle of the room, they all used their best suits (according to Arya).

Finally the event began, everyone present surrounded the Elementalists and the Examination Supervisors. Arya and the others lined up to form an arrowhead, Arya standing right in the middle. They walked closer to the pulpit where the Watchers were standing, the closer the other Elementalists began to break away from the ranks and take places on the left and right of the path Arya was walking on.

When Arya reached Astral, she immediately stuck her knee. Immediately Astral put a white robe on Arya's back, after pairing the robe Astral allowed Arya to replace his standing position on the pulpit. As Arya climbs the pulpit the nine friends take positions and bend their knees at Arya while looking down.

"Our respect to the new Chief Elementalist, we promise to fight with you and will always remind you that our goal is only one. Maintaining the peace and freedom of mankind" they said in unison.

Honestly hearing those words Arya goosebumps, she was sure the attendants of the ceremony also had goosebumps made. After the Elementalists gave their chairman a speech, the audience applauded loudly. Arya bowed to all of them and gestured to her friends to stand up. The party began, the food that had been prepared by the canteen managers was issued and served to the audience.

But Arya and the others immediately walked out of the room.

"Finally the ceremony is over" Arya said with a sigh of relief.

"How do you feel now, Captain?" timothy said while teasing him.

"Whisper, as you said. We have a goal we have to reach, and to reach that goal, our journey is still long"

Arc 1: "First Test" Completed