Chapter 109| Professional Assessment

Chapter 109: Chapter 109| Professional Assessment

They were halfway to the academic block when Nyx appeared.

Not from the direction of the 1-B block. From the training grounds path. She’d clearly been heading somewhere with purpose and had adjusted that purpose the moment she spotted them coming up the main campus path.

Zane saw her first.

Then registered what she was wearing.

Training gear. The fitted variant that sat differently from the uniform, tighter through the torso, he could envision the size of her huge sized boobs from shape alone. The material did considerably more structural negotiation than the standard uniform was ever asked to do. Nyx Hale in training gear at 8:20 AM on a Friday morning was definitely a significant amount of information arriving before the conversation started.

He kept his expression neutral.

Beside him Maren’s eyes moved.

He caught it in his peripheral vision. The specific thing eyes did when they clocked something and then immediately moved to a comparison point. Maren’s gaze went from Nyx’s chest, which the training gear was containing with what could only be described as considerable structural effort to her own which the training gear was also slightly containing, differently, in the compact fitted way.

Then Maren looked forward with a perfectly neutral expression.

’Women,’ Zane thought. ’Never satisfied with what they have.’

He looked at Maren beside him.

Reached over and rubbed her head once. Brief. Easy. The specific gesture of someone who had clocked exactly what just happened in her head and had decided this was the appropriate response.

Maren went still for exactly one second.

Then looked at him sideways.

He looked forward.

Something shifted in her expression. Not quite a smile, not the flustered red she’d been a moment ago. Something quieter than both. The look of someone who had just been seen accurately and hadn’t been expecting it.

The system surfaced.

『 Maren — Familiarity +3% 』

『 Current: 90% — Genuinely Close tier 』

『 System Note: She understood what that gesture meant without it being explained. That is what 90% familiarity looks like in practice. The system notes this with considerable satisfaction. 』

’I see,’ he thought.

Nyx reached them before he could process the notification further.

She stopped in front of them both. Dark hair. Pale skin. The training gear doing what the training gear was doing and showing no signs of mercy about it. Her eyes moved between Zane and Maren with the calculating stillness running its standard assessment. Clocking the proximity, the post-training gear on both of them, the general Friday morning energy of two people who had walked here from the same direction at the same time.

"Been a while Zane." Her gaze settled on Maren briefly. "With your girlfriend."

Maren’s face went red.

Not slowly. Immediately. The specific rapid transition of someone whose composure had been caught off guard before it could get its defenses in position.

Zane looked at Nyx.

’Nyx Hale,’ he thought. ’Wearing training gear at 8:20 AM and making it everyone else’s problem simultaneously.’

"It’s more complicated than that," he said.

Nyx tilted her head slightly. Just enough. The movement carrying the training gear through a brief negotiation with gravity that produced a result Zane observed with what he chose to classify as professional assessment of a potential third slot acquisition candidate.

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the professional assessment lasted 1.8 seconds. The system is not judging the host. The system is simply logging observable data. 』

’I was calculating familiarity building opportunities,’ he thought.

『 Extensively. For 1.8 seconds. 』

’Shush,’ he thought.

Nyx was looking at him with the expression of someone who had received a deflection and had filed it accordingly.

"Complicated," she repeated. Not mocking. Just, noting it.

He checked his communicator.

"It’s almost time for class," he said.

Her eyes moved to the communicator. Back to him. Something in her expression shifted. The specific adjustment of someone who had come with a purpose and had encountered a time constraint.

"Yeah," she said."Okay then".

She raised her hand in a brief wave.

Her chest responded to the movement immediately, the training gear doing its absolute best as her boobs jingled in rhythm with the direction her hand was going, the fabric negotiating the situation with limited success.

Zane’s eyes made an independent executive decision before his brain caught up with what they were doing.

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the host’s eyes returned to face level slightly faster than last time. The system considers this marginal progress in discipline. 』

’I wasn’t looking,’ he thought.

『 The system has sensors. 』

’Fine,’ he thought.

He waved back.

Nyx had already turned and taken three steps before she paused.

Looked back over her shoulder.

Nyx paused. Looked back over her shoulder.

"You didn’t bother introducing me to your friend." Her eyes settled on Maren with the brief assessment of someone encountering a new variable.

"Maren," Zane said. "Same class."

Nyx held her gaze on Maren for a moment longer. Something small in her expression. Not the full calculation, something more instinctive. Then threw a brief nod in Maren’s direction.

Maren looked back with the composure of someone who had decided to be completely unreadable and was succeeding at it.

Then Nyx turned and kept walking.

Zane watched her go.

She had a specific walk pattern. Deliberate, controlled, the kind that carried purpose in every step without announcing it. Her dark hair stretched to her waist, moving with the momentum of her stride. The overall situation of Nyx Hale existing in the world and making it a problem for people who had to share that world with her.

He pulled up her familiarity display.

『 NYX HALE — Familiarity: 18% — Stranger tier 』

『 Potential third slot candidate — Kinetic Force — B-rank 』

『 Next threshold: 35% — Acquaintance tier 』

’18%,’ he thought. ’Still a long way from the acquisition window being worth it.’

’But she keeps showing up,’ he thought. ’And she keeps making it everyone’s problem when she does.’

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the host’s observation is accurate on both counts and the system also notes the host tracked the departure for 2.1 seconds. The system considers this thorough. 』

’That’s enough from you,’ he thought. ’And between, I could just steal her Sigil. But I’m still weighing the options.’

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the host is weighing options. The system recommends continued patience. A B-rank Kinetic Force Sigil at 18% output is significantly less useful than the same Sigil at 60% output. 』

That isn’t the issue,’ he thought. ’At least the slot gets filled. The output will upgrade eventually as familiarity grows.’

『 The system accepts this logic. It is sound. 』

’I know it is,’ he thought.

Maren appeared directly in his line of sight.

She had positioned herself there deliberately. Standing between him and the direction Nyx had gone with the specific calm of someone who had watched everything that had just happened and had made no decisions about it yet.

She looked at him.

He looked at her.

"Class," she said.

"Yeah class," he confirmed.

They walked toward the academic block.

At the entrance Maren pushed through first. He followed. The corridor splitting ahead 1-A left, 1-B right.

She stopped at the split.

Looked at him.

"Don’t stare at people," she said. Flat. Warm. The specific version of the delivery that meant she wasn’t actually annoyed and they both knew it.

"I wasn’t staring," he said.

She looked at him with the expression that had been evolving since week one and had arrived at something he still didn’t have a complete name for.

"You have that lewd face," she said.

"I always have a face, the fuck is lewd," he said. "It came with the body."

She stared at him for one second.

Then turned left toward 1-A without further comment.

He followed.

Instructor Vael was already at the front of the classroom. She had a folder open, tablet in hand, the composed energy of someone who had been here long enough to stop marking exactly when students arrived as long as they arrived.

She looked up briefly as they came through the door.

"Calloway and Cass." She noted their presence. Went back to her tablet.

They found their seats.

The Friday session beginning around them.

Zane looked at his notebook.