"Can you…"
A voice called out to him. It was faint, almost distant.
"Can you tell me…"
The voice repeated itself once more, sounding as if it was moving closer and closer.
"Can you tell me your name?"
Thrrrrp!
Rohan awoke with a start, shooting up from his position with panic, fear, the whole lot plastered on his face.
"Where am I?" He asked, heartbeat pounding harder and harder by the seconds.
"You're at the Awakened Association's clinic. First, do you know your name?" Someone answered him from nearby, clearly used to dealing with situations like this all the time with how nonchalant he seemed despite Rohan's panicked state.
Rohan glanced over at the source of the voice and spotted a man wearing a white gown, a clear sign that he was a doctor or scientist of some sort, staring intensely at the tablet screen in his hands.
"I'm… Rohan Roy." He answered back absentmindedly. A few seconds of observing his environment was enough for his emotional state to settle back down to a reasonable level, that and a clear lack of a certain leopard beast in the vicinity.
"Good, now tell me the last thing you remember."
His head tucked down in thought. 'The last thing I remember…' A pair of dark yellow, bloodshot eyes flashed past his mind in that instant. The sight of those terrifying orbs floating just inches above his face, spelling his impending death, gave him chills.
"I fought an F ranked Yellowed Spotted Leopard… and lost."
"Good. That's all I needed from you, Rohan. Report to the desk outside this office whenever you feel up to it. You weren't too seriously hurt, so you should've mostly healed by now. Have a good day." The doctor left without another word.
'I'm still alive!'
Ecstatic. That was how Rohan felt after the doctor left him to his own devices. 'I actually managed to survive that last encounter with the leopard, thank god they came in at the last second to end the trial or else I would've been toast.'
Despite the harsh treatment he'd been dished ever since his entrance into the Awakened Association building, all of his previous dissatisfaction washed clean thanks to the simple fact that they saved him. Though, he knew they were only doing their jobs.
He took five minutes to think things over and recover his bearings, dressed back into his own clothes, and left the clinic. 'The doc said to report to the desk outside; I guess that's just about receiving a report of my failure. At least I can get this over and done with and finally get myself registered, like I originally planned to when coming here… I'll get revenge on that fucker Niko for sending me to the fifth floor. One day I will…'
"Next!"
Rohan was called over as soon as he neared the unassuming desk, just as the doctor had instructed him. The young woman behind the counter looked fed up, full of hate for her job.
"Your name?" She asked.
"Rohan Roy."
"Head down the hallway into the room on the end to receive the results of your Beast Trial."
Rohan nodded and went on his way. He had no clue where in the association building he was exactly, other than the clinic behind him, but despite receiving clear instructions from both the doctor and the receptionist, he analysed his surroundings with caution.
'The last time I blindly followed directions, I was forced to fight an F rank beast. Never again…'
He scanned every sign, every door he passed by, making sure to keep track of where he went. Everything seemed all well and good, and so he reached the end of the winding hallways in just a few minutes — now much more confident that he wasn't falling for another trick.
There was no sign around the door he was instructed to enter, so he opened it with caution. It opened inwardly, and he propped his foot under it so it wouldn't close unless he let it. If the door locked behind him, trapping him in yet another room in the Association, then he really might just go insane and crash out on the next person he saw…
'Huh?'
The scene inside the room wasn't the least bit what he expected.
Those same rows of chairs, mundane flooring. The same spacious waiting area as before. Rohan froze at the doorway, foot still jammed underneath it, unsure how to proceed further.
'What?'
He knew this place; he knew it all too well.
How could he not?
This was the fifth floor waiting room for the Beast Trials — the same place where he sat around still in his school uniform while everyone else was kitted up for war.
And there were still some people waiting, faces he recognised from the same batch as him.
'That means not much time has passed since I lost consciousness, at least.'
Not just a few people either; around twenty familiar looking faces from batch 27 still occupied the chairs, some resting with their eyes shut, simply waiting out the dullness until their turn to challenge a beast cropped up.
A few of them looked up as he entered.
"Rohan Roy." An even more familiar sounding voice called out to him, almost giving him chills from the short memories he had of it.
That stern female voice snapped him out of his stupor instantly. This was the first time she was calling him by his name.
His head turned to face the source, and sure enough, she was leaning against a wall nearby with as flat an expression as ever.
Rohan's shoulders tensed on instinct. For a brief moment, genuine suspicion crossed his mind. 'This isn't another trick, is it?'
"You called for me?" he asked.
The woman's gaze swept over him once, briefly lingering on his bruised state and the fresh change back into his own clothes.
"Yes." She held a tablet in her hand and tapped it once. Something that seemed to be a common occurrence with employees of the Association. "You're here to learn of the results of your Beast Trial."
His face stiffened. Right, his results. His lips pulled into a flat line.
He already knew how this would go.
She glanced down at the details of his trial on her tablet. "Participant Rohan Roy. F rank live beast trial. Trial Beast: Yellow Spotted Leopard." She read out verbatim.
Rohan swallowed, mind already wandering about finding his way to the Awakened registration floor.
"Result: Pass."
"…What?"