Here I am as one. Here we are as one.
I take a breath. Extend my hand.
...
Hello?
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Chiyo Sakakibara is not a kind girl. She isn't friendly, she isn't particularly helpful if it doesn't directly benefit her, and she has never real...
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Prologue
Dissonance
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I flashed back into existence.
"-g on?" I mumbled, before being overrun with confusion at my own utterance. I shook my head and began my thought process proper.
Step One. Facts.
Facts: I have been kidnapped, I don't know by whom, I don't know where I'm going.
I was at a rest stop. My name is Chiyo Sakakibara and I attend a school in northern Japan. I am certified as the Ultimate Talent Scout, and I handle the admissions to the Ultimate Program at Orion's Bow, which is a school on the other side of the country. I still arent regular school, and my class was on a field trip to a museum for a history project, we stopped at a rest stop on the side of the highway.
They grabbed me and shoved me into a van. I didn't see my kidnappers. I feel like I'm floating, I must be unconscious.
About my talent, as I said I'm the Ultimate Talent Scout. I'm just very good at judging people at a glance, and I can evaluate their skills in depth with a little time.
Every year, at least a few people apply for certain talents, the high profile ones like Painter or Musician, but only one or two can actually be certified for each talent.
That's my job. Choosing between the people whose talents are contested.
I also get to choose who gets access to the prestigious Ultimate programs across the country. Every year I memorise the exact list of ultimates to be certified that year. Of course it'd be unreasonable for any normal person to do that, it's hundreds of names and talents. But here I am. I'm special within Ultimates, too. Most Ultimates are at least 18 when certified, but I got my talent when I was just 14 years old. I've been working for the Ultimate Program ever since.
Step Two, Focus on my surroundings.
That can't really be done at the moment, but I do know that I'm probably still in transport and that they made me unconscious somehow. I'm dreaming of being in a tube of water, with wires and such protruding from all my orifices.
I know this is a dream, because all my dreams have a strange clinical quality about them. I'm in a lab and being experimented on, it's a recurring nightmare.
