Aron immediately noticed Cyntia's terrified expression, at which Ryan also frowned. She quickly tried to disguise it by coughing softly and turning her back without giving any more answers, then she opened her watch again.
"Heavens! Look at the time, we have to get going with this exam." Cyntia said. "Please, follow me." The pair exchanged glances while the entourage around them simply ignored the principal's small slip.
They quickly crossed the many hallways while the principal, from time to time, greeted the many students passing by. Ryan soon noticed that the principal's pace seemed to grow faster and faster as her anxiety seemed to be getting the better of her.
But then, suddenly...
A familiar sigh reached Ryan's ears. "Ah~ I don't know if I'll manage to turn in the project in time." Immediately he stopped in place while trying to trace the source of the sound.
Suddenly, the entire entourage stopped because of him.
"Is there any problem?" Cyntia asked, trying to avoid eye contact with Ryan.
"Could you give me a second?" Ryan said, at which she frowned.
"Well, if it's just a second..." Cyntia authorized, at which Ryan turned and climbed a nearby staircase with agility, he then turned right down the hallway and went straight before turning left, approaching a room with an open door.
An electronics lab with a few dozen people inside, each one focused on a distinct project. Some were soldering circuit boards with masks while others placed neural readers on their heads to control mechanical arms.
The room was strangely silent, thanks to the unshakable focus of everyone inside. Filled only by the mechanical sound of parts moving or by whispers so low they were imperceptible to everyone... except Ryan.
Ryan approached the door and knocked gently against it, announcing his presence. However, the sound of his fist against the wooden door seemed like a powerful boom propagating through a vacuum, making everyone shudder with fright. They quickly pulled off their masks in panic as they stood up in an orderly fashion, as if to receive some professor or important person.
Suddenly, every person in the room stopped what they were doing and turned toward Ryan. Their eyes full of panic and expectation…
Until they realized it was Ryan.
An unknown teenager.
"…" Ryan observed in silence, without knowing what to say. "Hi?" He said, unsure.
"..."
Just as suddenly, they sighed heavily.
"False alarm, everyone!" One of them shouted. "It's not a surprise evaluation. We're not doomed."
"Jerk!" One of them shouted in Ryan's direction.
"Get out of here!" Another said, making him frown.
"The daycare is on the other side!" By this point Ryan was starting to feel offended.
Even so, he only scoffed before entering the room. A pair of eyes was already staring fixedly at him, even without words. Elisa seemed frozen, not knowing what to think of that situation. Ryan, however, simply approached in silence as their eyes met.
But then a hand grabbed his shoulder halfway there. "Where do you think you're going?" A man stared at him intensely while his hand threatened to crush his shoulder.
Soon two more stood up and said in sequence. "I already told you, the daycare is on the other side, brat!" He said harshly, making his spit wash over Ryan. "Get out of here!"
"Let go of me." Ryan said, while some around still watched him with interest as others returned to their work.
"Tsk! There's always an idiot who's too slow to understand." He shoved Ryan's shoulder. "Get lost, or things are going to get ugly for you." The three surrounded Ryan while cracking their knuckles.
Each of them was taller than Ryan, more intimidating than Ryan, and they were greater in number, and even so…
"You're the ones who provoked this." Ryan's eyes devoured all the light around him, at which the roar of a beast was heard throughout the entire room shaking it. Making everyone around focus on him with a terrifying chill.
"ARGH!"
"DAMN IT!"
"HELL!"
The three in front of him staggered, clutching their own heads, they bumped into the prototypes, taking a brief shock, and then fell to the floor. When they came to, Ryan was walking ahead, paying them no attention.
"W-what happened?" Someone nearby said as everyone became confused.
It was as if they had blinked at the wrong moment and missed all the action. Ryan had simply taken down three men, and no one knew how, not even the men themselves.
One of them clenched his teeth and tried to grab his foot, at which Ryan quickly perceived the attempt. Even so, he only glanced at the desperate act with contempt, before kicking the hand away.
"I warned you." He ignored that scene. That wasn't the reason he had come here.
Soon he was face to face with her.
Ryan looked deep into Elisa's eyes, just as she did.
Elisa looked just as striking today as on the day they met in Manhattan. The difference was that she was quieter, a result of the setting they found themselves in. But clearly, she had lost her words in front of him.
Ryan thought the suit and tie had left her speechless. After all, she had never seen him so well-dressed before.
"I heard your voice and decided to stop by to say hi." Ryan said, at which Elisa swallowed hard, her friends around her looking at the situation with curiosity. Some even smiling softly.
The whole room stared at the two of them, friends and colleagues alike. Acquaintances and strangers. Elisa was visibly not prepared to deal with that situation. So she simply said, in a low, timid tone, her face flushed. "Hi."
"Surprised to see me here?" He said, oblivious to the people around them.
"A little." She said, lowering her head.
"But for you, is it a good surprise or a bad one?" He said with a mischievous smile.
"I... I don't know... good, I think." She swallowed hard, at which the people got even more intrigued by that.
"Would you be happy to see me every day?" Ryan said, making her raise her head with wide eyes. Her face immediately flushed with sparkling eyes.
"Oh!"
"Could this be it?"
"It must be!"
The whole room grew interested in that love story forming in their minds. Elisa, however, only got even more confused, looking around in panic and desperation. "I-I don't know, I guess so?"
"Guess?" Ryan teased.
"Definitely yes!" Elisa said without thinking. "I'd love to see you every day!"
"Waaa!!!!" The room shouted, ecstatic.
"But how?!" Elisa asked. "You, studying here, how?"
"Don't think too much about it." Ryan said with conviction. "I have my tricks."
"Like a magician?" A friend of hers asked beside her.
"Like a magician?" Ryan repeated the question to himself, resting his chin on his hand. "No, I'd say I'm more like a miracle invoker." He shrugged. "Anyway, soon all of you will hear about me. So just wait for the good news, Lisa."
"Lisa?" Someone shouted. "He called her Lisa?"
Elisa looked around, even more confused. "O... of course, that's great!" She shouted, trying to take back control. "Now, please, we're busy! My project is having problems and I don't even know why, and the deadline is tight. So, later! We'll see each other later!"
"Ah yes, your project…" Ryan glanced at the circuit in front of him. "Of course it's having problems, it's short circuiting right here." Ryan leaned over the table, leaving little space between him and her, which quickly gave her a shiver while her heart raced. "If you fix all this it should work, but you'll need to adjust the power too, it's a bit weak. Did you do the calculations?"
"Yes?" Elisa looked at him, intrigued, as Ryan looked at the papers on the table and quickly grabbed a few.
"Geez, review all of this. You used the formula for series circuits instead of parallel ones, that changes everything. Also, add some capacitors." Ryan flipped through a few pages and then handed them back to her. "This should fix everything."
"Really?" Elisa questioned, getting over her embarrassment. "What?" She analyzed what he said in silence. "Is it true? Is he right?"
"Let me see." One of her friends looked over the papers. "Wow! Who did the calculations?" The team quickly exchanged glances, at which Ryan coughed softly.
"Anyway, see you later, Lisa." He waved with a smile, turning his back, as everyone around watched him enter and leave with endless curiosity.
"Who the hell is he?" One of the friends asked, at which Elisa simply said.
"I'm not sure." But then she added. "But I've certainly never met anyone like him."