Zero stood on a brown, wooden floor. His hands were chained together. He stood in the middle of a white ring, the borders were quite a few meters away from him. There were chairs on the opposite side of the rings, and on them sat people in white robes. Their hoods were up, and Zero couldn't see their faces. The only one who didn't wear a white robe was the person in the chair in front of Zero, whose robe was black.
"Illegally obtaining fragment powers? I never did that! And who are you people? Where am I?" Zero looked around.
"Do not lie! We saw it with our very eyes! We exam overseers see everything!" An old woman in a white robe spoke.
"No! That wasn't fragme-"
"You can't deny it, brat!" A deep voice belonging to a man in a white robe interrupted Zero.
"You're a street rat! This isn't the first time something like this has happened with one of you!"
"You are to be charged with obtaining fragment powers illegally, and cheating in the fragment exams!"
"Don't forget his background! He's probably committed plenty of crimes before this!"
"There's no point in hearing him out!"
"Disqualify him! Get him locked up!"
Voices erupted from the robed figures.
"EVERY ONE OF YOU! SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN!" The person in the black robe spoke.
The exam overseers went silent.
Then one of them spoke up. "You dare tell us what to-"
"Quiet!" The person in the black robe said. The voice belonged to the examiner. "Why not hear him out?"
Zero looked at him. "The examiner!"
"Yep! That's me!" The examiner took his hood off. "This hood is uncomfortable as hell!"
He was a young man, most likely in his twenties. He had short, dark blue hair slicked back. He had a scar that started on his neck and went up his left cheek. One of his eyes was dark blue, and the other was light blue.
"Let's hear him out first, yeah?" The examiner looked at Zero.
"What's there to hear!? You saw it yourself, Auctor!" It was the old woman.
"Shut up." Auctor said.
The old woman wanted to say more, but was clearly struggling with opening her mouth.
"How dare you!? Using your power on us!" She managed to say something.
"Fine! Let's hear the brat out!" A man said.
Zero then started speaking. "I… don't know what it is… this was the first time I used it. I've never broken a memory fragment before…"
"That's obviously a lie! Who would believe th-"
"I believe him." Auctor cut off the man.
"What!? Have you finally gone crazy!?"
"It was a mistake making Auctor the examiner!"
"He's barely twenty-four! One of us should've taken his place!"
Auctor sighed. "SHUT UP!"
No one could speak.
"I'll prove his innocence!" Auctor appeared in front of Zero faster than he could blink. Up close, Zero saw that Auctor was quite tall.
"Uhh… how do you plan on proving my innocence?" Zero looked at him with confusion.
Auctor suddenly touched Zero's forehead with his index finger.
"Huh? What are you doing?" Zero asked.
"Taking a look to see if you have any fragment energy."
"Ok… whatever that means…"
He has fragment energy, all right… but where's his memory energy? He should've gotten both if he shattered a memory fragment! Auctor then pulled back his hand.
"He has fragment energy! But I sensed no memory energy in him!" Auctor said. "That's enough to prove his innocence!" Auctor broke Zero's chains.
The people in the white robes started speaking again.
"That's impossible!"
"Check again!"
"He's just a damn street rat!"
"He must have some trick to hide memory energy!"
"LET'S JUST KILL THE BRAT!" A man stood up and extended his arm, palm facing Zero. Then, fire started forming in front of his palm, like a sphere. It reached a huge size.
Shit! Zero panicked.
But, just before the man shot the fire at Zero… Auctor spoke. "Aim it at yourself! Don't cancel it out!"
"No! Wait!" The man couldn't resist as his palm started to face himself.
He then shot the fireball at himself.
Smoke enveloped the man after the blast. When the smoke went away, Zero could see him standing there. His robe was burnt off, leaving only his white pants and revealing a red cloth underneath, probably to protect himself from his own fires. But it didn't do its job…
The man's face was burnt all over the place. His brown beard was now uneven at several places, and you could see a few brown strands of hair on his head that survived. His eyes were completely white. He then fell backwards.
"Anyone else want to kill him? Just try it!" Auctor was visibly pissed.
The room froze, no overseer dared to speak.
"Good!" Auctor looked at the burnt man. "He's still alive! But I will kill the next person who tries anything!"
"So… I'm not being charged?" Zero asked:
"Nope!" Auctor replied. "And I forgot to tell you! The other participants have finished phase two and three! Their getting their fragments now, then the ranking battles will take place!"
"What!? I missed it!?"
"Don't worry! I'm passing you! You just have to take part in the ranking battles now!" Auctor then pointed at one of the overseers. "Teleport him to the other participants."
"A-alright…" The overseer had no choice.
Zero's feet started to turn into blue particles, drifting away. This happened to the rest of his body too.
Zero then found himself back in the circular room he was in before each phase of the exam. He was still a bit shaken up from the earlier events.
He looked around, and saw a total of nine participants, each holding a memory fragment. Each fragment had a different form and color.
"So there are only ten of us in the end…"
"Zero? Where have you been?" Orrin asked, appearing behind Zero.
"Oh, I was-" Auctor's voice interrupted Zero.
"PARTICIPANTS! YOU HAVE ALL DONE WELL! YOU CAN NOW BREAK YOUR FRAGMENTS!"