**CHAPTER 3: THE FAILED CANDIDATE**
The gates of Akatsuki Academy swallowed students whole.
Kaz stood at the threshold, rolling his stiff uniform sleeves up to his elbows. The fabric smelled like industrial cleaner and false promises. Behind him, the last transport ship hummed as it departed, leaving him alone with the academy's jagged silhouette against the bruised sky.
"Ren Kazuki."
A guard blocked the entrance, tablet glowing in his hands. The screen displayed Kaz's file in clinical detail:
*Symbiosis Screening: Negative
Kaiju DNA Resonance: 0%
Psych Evaluation: High-risk*
Kaz smirked. "That all you got? I expected at least three pages about how disappointing I am."
The guard didn't blink. "You're here because Director Shirogane insisted. Not because you're special."
Kaz's grin sharpened. "Funny. That's exactly what your mom said about you."
A vibration thrummed through the ground. Somewhere deep in the academy's bowels, something massive shifted in its cage but it was expected in these times.
---
**Three Weeks Earlier - Testing Chamber**
Needles. Always more needles.
Kaz lounged on the examination table, watching crimson swirl through a dozen sample tubes. The white-coated techs whispered behind their masks.
"Subject shows no cellular degradation."
"No trace of Kaiju biomarkers."
"Another negative."
The lead researcher adjusted his glasses. "You understand what this means, Ren? You survived a direct Calamity exposure event with zero corruption."
Kaz stretched, popping his shoulders. "Guess I'm just built different."
The scientists exchanged glances. One tapped a screen, revealing Kaz's hometown - or what remained of it. A crater where the sky-city of Neo-Kyushu once floated.
"Your entire sector was vaporized during the last Calamity wave," the researcher said. "Yet you walked out without a scratch."
Kaz's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Must've been my lucky day."
---
**Present Day - Orientation Hall**
Two hundred students stood at attention in the cavernous hall. Projected above them, Director Shirogane's face loomed twenty feet tall.
"Welcome to your first day as humanity's last hope," the projection boomed. "By year's end, half of you will be dead."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Kaz leaned against the back wall, picking at his nails.
A girl with ice-blonde hair stepped onto the platform. Aoi. Her uniform bore the crimson insignia of a Prime Candidate.
"Symbiosis isn't a gift," she announced. "It's a war. And your bodies are the battlefield."
The floor panels retracted, revealing a glass observation deck below. Inside, something with too many joints and glowing veins thrashed against its restraints.
Kaz's pulse jumped. The thing in his dreams stirred in response.
"Today's evaluation is simple," Aoi continued. "Survive contact with a Stage-1 Kaiju pupa."
Screams erupted as the containment field flickered. Kaz pushed off the wall, cracking his neck.
Finally. Something interesting.
---