"So, you're saying you lost your Identification Card, but you have no idea when or where?"

  "That's right. I mean, hey……it's not like I carried it everywhere I went. I recall leaving it in the room in the inn I'm staying at, but there's no sign of it anymore."

  "Can you prove that you lost it? Or rather, prove that you ever had it in the first place? How do we know you're not a spy from another country or an illegal immigrant or something?"

  "Yeah, I can prove it. I'm currently a first year student at the Adventurer Academy. I couldn't have enrolled if I didn't have an ID, now could I?"

  If Persia was right, they were generally supposed to ask you to show your Identification Card when applying for the Adventurer Academy at their enrollment office. It was definitely something that was easy to overlook, which was probably why I had been able to get away with it in the first place.

  Man, talk about lucky, my life after reincarnation could have easily ended up with me rotting away in jail, the only thing that had prevented that was carelessness on the part of the Academy enrollment office. Which was exactly why I couldn't leave any room for suspicion, I couldn't waste that luck.

  In preparation for this, I had even thought up a whole, detailed backstory, in case they decided to probe and ask a ton of questions.

  "Hmm, I suppose that is true. Very well, then. Let us proceed with confirming that you really are a student at the Adventurer Academy," Said the agency guy.

  With that, my interrogation was over, as we headed to the Academy. Too bad this world didn't have telephones, could have resolved this thing in no time at all. Once he confirmed my claim, we headed back to his office and he proceeded to issue me an Identification Card.

  "Here, just fill it out with this pen," He said, handing me a white card with blank spaces on it and a black pen that appeared to be a long, thin crystal, with a bottle of ink to dip the tip into.

  It felt quite sturdy, and was about the size of a credit card. There was a translucent strip on top of it, a line that stated that I was a Rustlands citizen at the bottom, a square blank on the right side, and on the left, two spaces for my name……crap, I need to think of a last name.

  When I applied at the Academy, I just simply wrote down Kuro on my application, they never made a fuss about it, so I never bothered coming up with a last name. I was never given a real name in my old life either, the assassin who trained and raised me after I was sold to him as a kid just called me 'you' and 'boy', and after I started taking on professional assassination jobs, I primarily went by the codename 'Kuro', and would use random aliases during undercover and longer-term missions.

  I couldn't hesitate, or this guy might get suspicious. I'll write down the first thing that comes to mind!……

  "What the heck was I thinking?" I groaned to myself, as I left the government agency office with my new Identification Card.

  After filling out my name with the pen, which had a strange type of ink that initially glowed when I wrote with it, I had to place a finger on the square blank in the right side of the card and run my Mana through it, which turned the blank gray. To prove that the card was mine, I just had to run a bit of Mana through that square again, doing that would cause the translucent strip on top to start glowing. If anyone else tried it, it wouldn't glow. It was pretty neat.

  But of all the names I could have picked for my last name……I went with Black.

  Yeah, my first name was literally the Japanese word for black, and I had straight up gone with Black for my last name.

  That was so……unoriginal. Uncreative. Stupid!

  Ugh……well, whatever.

  This world just had one universal language, so no one else would understand it. Unless there were others who had reincarnated here from my old world, and chosen to retain their memories……but nah, the chances of that had to be pretty low……right?

  I still had some time before my part-time job at the bakery……I should probably go to the Academy and sort out my new full name. Leaving it as it was could result in a problem down the road. I made my way to the Academy and headed for the enrollment office, entering after knocking.

  "Uh, excuse me?"

  "Yes? Ah, you're Kuro, correct? What can I do for you?" Greeted an enthusiastic looking guy in glasses, with a messy mop of brown hair.

  He was the same guy who had been here when I first applied for the Adventurer Academy. What was his name again……?

  "Huh, I'm impressed you remember my name, we only met once, Mr……Insane?"

  Wait no, that didn't sound right.

  "Close, it's Nisane. And well, I have a photographic memory, so I don't forget things too easily. After all, how else can I identify the names of the applicants who passed the entrance exam and create a class list of all the new students? Well, what brings you here today?"

  A photographic memory, and he'd still forgotten to ask me for my ID back when I applied. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

  "Ahh, well……I realized that I kinda forgot to write my full name when I applied, so……"

  "Oh? So it wasn't deliberate?"

  "Wait, are people allowed to deliberately leave out their last names?"

  Huh, I only did it because I didn't know as much about this world as I should have, plus at the time, I just couldn't be bothered to make up a last name for myself, it felt embarrassing.

  "Well, yes. Some aspiring Adventurers apply to the Academy even though their families disapprove of them trying to become Adventurers, in which case they could forbid them from applying using their last names. Adventurers with no last names tend to be given rather hard times by their peers and can also find it difficult to take on good Quests. Those are quite rare these days, however. I assumed that was the case with you, and didn't say anything since inquiring into someone's family issues is rather rude," He explained.

  Come to think of it, the others had looked pretty surprised when I mentioned that I didn't have a last name.

  "Oh……well, in my case it was just a mistake, I don't really have any dramatic family circumstances or anything. Is there a long process or something, to update my name?"

  "Oh, not at all. Just write it down for me, I'll make sure to update the first year class list within the day."

  With that, I had fully sorted out any issues around my name and identity.

  Now that that's over……let's fast forward a bit, since nothing out of the ordinary happened during the week. Let's skip to, let's see……my fifth sparring session with Persia, just over a week after the first one.

  We had made great progress, I wasn't far off from fully controlling Lightning Boost at x2, and her movements using wind blasts had become a lot smoother, her control was steadily improving too. Her biggest problem was stopping smoothly, to do so she had to stop propelling herself forward and then blast out something with equal force in the opposite direction to cancel out the momentum……right now, her stops were kinda jerky and erratic.

  Right now, she was running circles around me.

  I mean that literally, she was moving around me in a circle, with me in the center. In an instant, with a single smooth motion, she changed her course and shot towards me, I was able to just about react and parry her strike, but the sheer force and momentum from her wind made me stumble.

  Crap, I was open!

  But instead of attacking, she suddenly stopped.

  "I feel……dizzy," She groaned, panting heavily.

  Looks like running in a circle had backfired.

  "You know, you're only just getting the hang of moving continuously with your wind blasts for more than a minute before needing to stop and breathe. Don't try too many things at the same time," I advised her, before flicking her forehead, "I win."

  Ugh, I sound just like the guy who raised me.

  "Hey……how much are you boosting yourself now?" She inquired.

  "Around x1.7 or x1.8 my normal speed, I'd say. Any more than that is still tough to fully control," I replied.

  "Huh, are you sure? I mean, I know I've gotten a lot faster over the last week, not to mention that my movements are becoming less and less linear and predictable, but you're keeping up with me just fine. The amount you're boosting yourself by hasn't increased that much, but it feels like you're much, much faster than a week ago."

  "Oh, that's quite simple, really……I'm surprised you haven't figured it out, it's pretty obvious. You wanna know?" I grinned smugly.

  "Not if you're gonna be annoying about it, no thanks."

  "O-oh, yeah? Fine then, I guess I won't tell you!"

  "……"

  "……"

  "Oh God, you're sulking again. You know what, I'm really curious after all, so tell me!"

  "I'm not sulking! And I don't really feel like it, so."……

  what is with this childish side of me that's been surfacing lately……who is this person?

  "Ugh, you're such a-! Alright, prove you're not sulking by telling me what you were going to say."

  "Tch……stupid Cat Girl. Fine, if you want to know so bad, guess I have no choice. I kept training to increase my normal speed, without any boost. Even a small increase in my normal speed makes a big difference when multiplied by the boost, so if I can steadily get faster while improving my mastery of Lightning Boost, I'll be able to hit much higher speeds than if I had just been working on the latter alone."

  "Huh, I see. Maybe I should try that too, improving my physical ability might help with being able to hold my breath for longer, meaning I can keep moving with my wind blasts longer too. It's pretty simple, but could be really effective."

  "I was taught that the basics are your foundation, the stronger the foundation, the more it can support above it. Or something like that, I guess. By the way, is there a name for your moving around continuously with wind blasts technique? It's kind of a mouthful to say."

  "Yeah, if I remember right, I think it's called……Propulsion. Most Wind Magic users prefer to master the alternative technique Flight though. Gela used an incomplete version of that against you during the mock tournament. It's almost impossible to master both, since they're the complete opposite. Flight requires delicate control of the air around you, while Propulsion requires more……violent control. Wait, that's not quite perfectly accurate……but I don't know how to word it better. Trying to master both will have adverse effects on each other, and in the end you won't be able to use either of them. A big reason why people prefer Flight over Propulsion is that the latter has a much greater risk of injury if you do it wrong, I nearly broke my neck when I first attempted it."

  "I see. I would have probably gone the same way if I had Wind Magic. Well, I probably would have tried to master both. But if that turned out to be impossible, I'd go with Propulsion. Flight is cool and all, but when it comes to offense, your Propulsion is pretty deadly."

  "Hey, I know. For the rest of tonight, let's spar without using Propulsion or Lightning Boost. That way, we'll use up less Mana and be able to go on for longer, plus it's like you said, if our normal abilities are strengthened, that makes our boosting techniques even more effective."

  "Nice thinking, Kitty Cat. Alright, let's do this!"

  She dashed forward and aimed a punch at my throat. I deflected her fist and got in close, throwing a sharp uppercut towards her. She managed to pull her head back just in time to avoid it, then used that backwards momentum to execute a backflip kick. I grabbed her ankles before her feet could connect with my face, and threw her over my shoulder. She twisted in mid-air and landed on all fours, before charging forward towards me again.

  "Heh, I know that cats always land on their feet, but I didn't expect that to apply to you too!"

  "Oh, shut it. How about this, if I beat you tonight, you stop calling me Cat Girl and Kitty Cat……or any feline related nicknames for that matter!" She proposed, as I dodged a couple of her strikes and countered, as she parried in response.

  "Well, it's not like I'll lose, so sure. But it's not fair unless I gain something if I win," I smirked as I switched my stance upside down, standing on my hands and attacking with my legs.

  "Fine, what do you want if you win?" She inquired, blocking my kicks and jumping back out of my range.

  "Hmm, let's see……how about you add 'meow' at the end of your sentences when you speak from now on?"

  "Are you kidding, that's way too embarrassing! Absolutely not!" She protested, jumping up and kicking down at my face, as I blocked her strikes with my arms and jumped back.

  "How about……oh! Let me pet your cat ears!"

  I did not just say that out loud……did I?

  "H-huh, wh-what? I mean, it's not as bad as your last suggestion, but it's still kinda embarrassing……"

  Did I seriously just say that out loud!?

  Oh my not-God, kill me now! The instant that I'd been unable to think of anything, I had accidentally slipped back into my old habit of blurting out the first thing that came to mind. I'd been censoring that habit quite a bit since coming to this world, but an occasional slip up every now and then was inevitable. Okay, I can still salvage this. I'll say I was kidding!

  And suggest something more normal, like.

  "I g-guess that's fine. B-but just for a bit, o-okay? Though it's not like I'll lose, so it doesn't matter!"

  Huh?

  Say what, she was okay with it? A lot of thoughts were flying through my head, but one thing was clear……

  I suddenly wanted to win this sparring match a lot more than I did before. We both dashed forward towards each other and began exchanging blows, but neither of us were able to land a decisive hit, as we kept countering and evading each other's every move.

  But this wouldn't last forever, it would come down to which of us could maintain this intensity for longer. Something had to give eventually, I just had to hold out till then and wait for an opening.

  And then it came. She struck out towards my head, leaving her throat wide open to attack. There it was!

  Right before I countered, her words from our first sparring match echoed through my head.

  "You know, most of your attacks are aimed at your opponent's throat, head or heart. In a drawn out fight, it becomes kinda predictable."

  Did she just leave herself open there on purpose to draw me in and counter?

  Well, in that case……

  I feigned an attack towards her neck, which she instantly responded to by getting into position to counter. That's when I got low and sweep kicked her feet, knocking her down. If I had genuinely gone for her neck instead of throwing a feint, she would have countered and defeated me.

  If it hadn't been for her advice, that was exactly what would have happened.

  "Remember when you told me how my fighting style can get predictable in a drawn out fight? Thanks for that, it came in real handy," I smirked, as I offered her my hand and pulled her back on her feet.

  "Yeah, yeah. Don't rub it in. And I was this close to getting rid of those annoying nicknames, too," She sighed in disappointment.

  "Yeah, you did get pretty close. But I just happened to be a bit stronger."

  "That could have gone either way, at the very least we're evenly matched!"

  "Aww, is someone a sore loser?"

  Heh……this was fun.

  "Alright, that's it. Next time I'll beat you so effortlessly that you'll have to eat those words! Anyway……you won so, uh……let's get this over with."

  Huh, what was she……o-oh, the bet.

  I had almost forgotten about that, and now my heart was beating like crazy, as she came closer and lowered her head bashfully.

  "A-are you sure-?" I began to ask hesitantly.

  "Hurry up already, this is so embarrassing!" She blurted, her face turning red.

  I gulped and tentatively reached for her cat ears, gently grasping them in my hands and stroking them. I used to pet any stray cats I came across in my old life, I didn't much like dogs but I'd always been a cat person. Her ears felt just like a cat's, but bigger, fluffier and softer than any cat I'd ever petted before.

  My heart continued to race as I started to run my fingers across the silky fur covering her ears, and her scent slowly captivating my nostrils. Huh, I wonder if her hair feels the same as the fur on her ears? Before I realized what I was doing, I was patting and stroking the top of her head, until I came back to my senses.

  "S-sorry! I kinda got carried away!"

  She was quiet for a while and didn't respond, before replying with an averted gaze.

  "D-don't worry about it. It's, uh, getting kind of late. Let's head back now."

  "Yeah, a-alright."

  The walk back was pretty awkward, neither of us said a word, or even make eye contact.

  Why did I do that!?

  The moment I started, I just got way too into it, who knows how far I would have gone if I hadn't snapped out of it at the end. I'd never felt this way before, I had faced and delivered death countless times, but my heart had never raced like this before.

  As we snuck back in past the walls and were about to go our separate ways, I took a deep breath to calm myself, which only kinda worked, and called out to her.

  "Uh hey, Persia."

  "Yeah, what's up?"

  "I, uh……I'm sorry if, you know, I made you feel uncomfortable or something. I was just."

  "If……"

  "Huh?"

  "If I really had been uncomfortable……I would have stopped you. But……I didn't," She quietly replied, shyly meeting my gaze, "W-well, I should get going! I'll see you in a couple of nights- oh wait, tomorrow's a weekday, we have classes, so technically."

  "Yeah, see you tomorrow, Persia."

  As I headed back to the inn and entered my room, before crawling into bed, I couldn't stop my face from breaking out into a goofy grin.

  What was this overwhelming giddy feeling?

  Even my most satisfying assassin missions never made me feel like this. As my eyes began to droop from exhaustion, I drifted off to possibly the most peaceful sleep I'd ever experienced.

  Aaand, as a result, I was late for classes the next day.

  "Run twenty laps around the training hall, one for every minute that you were late by!" Commanded Instructor Dile, as I showed up well after the first session had begun.

  "Actually, I'm only fifteen minutes late……uh, sir," I replied, unintentionally sounding sarcastic.

  Crap, my old habit resurfaced again.

  "Thirty laps. Say another word and it'll be fifty!"

  Ignoring the sneers and taunts from the other groups, I wordlessly began my assigned laps. I didn't mind much……I was in far too good a mood to let this get me down.

  "Tough luck, dude! You shouldn't have gotten all sassy on him, though!" Grinned Rai, coming up to me after I finished.

  Don't call me sassy……ever.

  "Oh, shut it."

  "So hey, you are training for the thing right? Made any progress?"

  "Guess you'll see in a few weeks."

  "Aww, come on! Don't be like that! I've made a lot of progress, by the way! I can control my Lightning Boost all the way upto-!"

  "I don't care! Keep it to yourself, after all there's every chance we'll get matched up against each other in the tournament," I interrupted, cutting him off before he could finish.

  Well, to be perfectly honest, the real reason was that I didn't want to hear how much better he could use Lightning Boost than I could.

  Petty and childish?

  Sure, but it was easier to keep my pride intact if I just pretended like this idiot wasn't potentially stronger than me.

  "Hey, lightning pair! We're supposed to begin our combat drills, get over here!" Called Key, standing with the rest of Group D.

  "Please don't lump me in with this idiot just because we have the same Elemental Magic," I groaned, as we joined them.

  "So hurtful!" Exclaimed Rai, feigning heartbreak.

  "So annoying," I bluntly replied.

  "Hey, good morning," Said Persia, as our gazes met.

  "Y-yeah, good morning," I replied a bit awkwardly, averting my gaze without realizing it.

  "What's this? Did something happen between you two?" Inquired Rai with a smug look, raising an eyebrow.

  "There does seem to be some……weird tension between the two of you," Agreed Key, staring at us quizzically.

  "No w-way, you guys are just imagining it!"

  "Yeah, i-it's all in your heads- oh! Did you guys hear that Kuro registered a last name for himself?"

  Not the most subtle change of topic, but thankfully, it worked.

  "I thought you said you didn't have one?" Inquired Rai curiously.

  "Yeah, but then I found out about the fact that Adventurers with no last name are usually assumed to have family issues and were forbidden from using it. Well, I don't have family issues because I don't have a family. So……I made up a last name for myself to avoid any misunderstandings," I explained.

  I'll leave out the part where I didn't have an Identification Card before, the less people that know about that, the better.

  "Well?"

  "Huh? Well, what?"

  "What's your full name?"

  Oh, crap. I was so busy being relieved about successfully changing the subject that I forgot how poorly thought out and embarrassing my last name was.

  "It's, uh……Black. My full name is Kuro Black. I-I just went with the first thing that came to mind, so……"

  "You really like the color black, don't you? Except for the Academy uniform, you always wear black," Commented Key, raising an eyebrow.

  Okay……they weren't laughing. Guess I was just overthinking it, Japanese didn't even exist in this world, after all.

  "Group D! Stop slacking off!" Boomed Instructor Dile.

  As the others returned to their combat drills, I felt a hand on my shoulder stop me before I could go. It was Rai.

  "Hmm?"

  "Hey……this might make no sense whatsoever, but……well, it's about your name."

  What was he trying to get at? This might be the most serious I'd ever seen him act.

  It was weird and strangely unsettling.

  "Yeah……what about it?"

  "When we first met and you told me your name, I thought it might have been just a coincidence, since this world has English as it's only language……"

  Wait……what!? Did he just say 'this world'? And 'English'?

  This world only had one language……and no one referred to it as 'English', it simply didn't have a name, since it didn't need one as there weren't any other languages spoken by the people in this world, it was the one and only universal language of this world.

  "……if I'm right, then your first name- hey, uh……does the word 'Japanese' ring any bells?"

  No. Fucking. Way.

  Rai……was from the same world that I came from!?

  _____________________________________________

  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.