Nervously sitting at his desk, Marth glanced around the room to see that most of his peers were already relaxing with their pencils down. Five minutes and five seconds remained on the clock and Marth couldn't stop sweating.

"They can't be done yet. That's impossible! They have to be cheating.", Marth muttered to himself.

"The hour is almost complete, please finish up your entrance exams within the next five minutes.", The administrator announced.

"Shit!", Marth cursed. His exam not even half complete.

Marth quickly flipped through the incomplete pages, barely eyeing the masses of text.

"There's no way. This much would take me another thirty minutes!"

A bead of sweat formed on his brow. Holding his exam with both hands, a pencil between his index and middle finger, Marth looked again at the room. The light gently shone in through the tall, contemporary windows. Luckily they were diffused so he couldn't see outside, that would only distract him. He was sitting in the middle of the lecture hall, about half way up the elevated seating. From the view up here he could see the exam admin at the front of the room before the large green chalkboard. There the words "St. Ezreal Esper Academy Entrance Exam" were written in big letters.

"Who am I kidding." Marth quietly considered. "This is St. Ezreal's after all."

Amidst the sound of pencils on paper, Marth was ready to concede, close his eyes and put his head down. With eyes halfway shut, Marth suddenly noticed a girl in the front row, frantically flipping through pages similarly to as Marth had just done. So focused on the test, Marth hadn't noticed her before, but damn, she was actually kind of cute. Platinum blonde hair, side pony tail, and she wore that rushed, irritated expression so well.

"Is she even wearing makeup? Maybe she's just a natural beauty." Marth asked the room.

The sound of pencils stopped. Heads seemed to turn in slow motion towards Marth. Although softly, Marth had spoken aloud, and now many students were looking up at him. The girl in the front seemed to have heard as well, and her expression had changed from hasted to surprised. Her eyes were wide open and met with Marth's. Marth just stared, not knowing what to do. She had green eyes, big green eyes.

The class let out a laugh and the test administrator stood up.

"Quiet please, eyes on your papers."

The girl blushed, turning to her front and embarrassingly looking down at her exam book. She put her shoulders up as if to hide between them, with her hands together, arms tucked between her legs.

Marth let out an embarrassed cough and blushed just the same. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend that didn't happen. He thought of those green eyes, like freshly polished emeralds glistening in the sun.

"Two minutes!" The administrator called out.

Marth hadn't answered a single question in three minutes, too busy thinking about giving up and looking at cute girls.

"This is crunch time!" Marth thought, trying to get himself amped up. But that alone wasn't enough. With half the exam remaining, and such little time, there was only one option remaining for success. The thing that got Marth into Esper studies in the first place, the thing that had gotten him into so much trouble, but so much fun...

Marth sat up straight with a stern look on his face, closed his eyes, and opened his mind's eye. Astral Projection. A world within the mind, able to be summoned by any human being. The basis for Esper abilities. In this world, time stands still, as the Astral reality becomes that of the user's design. There is nothing but one's self and blackness, until one's consciousness creates another thing. Marth had discovered this place by accident when he was young, bored, and lonely. Like many, Marth had created imaginary friends to keep himself company, but only after an accident did Marth actually migrate an Astral lifeform to the real world. It was an imperfect being, with it's soul tied to Marth himself, but it lived, walked and talked for a short time. A taboo, creating life, but he didn't learn that until later.

Right now the situation called for one of Marth's best projections. HYPER DRAGON EYE! The name was a work in progress, because he couldn't think of any more fitting names. This projection could be likened to an ancient dragon who is terrorizing a populous. The dragon's seeming omnipresence in the people's lives create the sentiment that the dragon is the seer of all secrets.

Marth began the projection by viewing himself in the Astral world. Standing tall, with arms stretched downward, he created a summoning circle at his feet. Elements of vision, mind, and body were contained within the circle. The circle spun slowly, gradually increasing in size. Silently and motionless in the real world, Marth opened both eyes in the Astral world, yelling at the top of his lungs, HYPER-DRAGON-EYE! A third eyelid suddenly appeared in Marth's Astral forehead, opening wide as the summoning circle expanded drastically. Marth drew on his knowledge of the lecture hall he was sitting in, and superimposed it's geometry into the Astral realm.

So far, this process was child's play, an activity kids with wild imaginations do. The next step however, was what separated the men from the boys. The final step was bridging the gap between the Astral Realm and the physical world, a feat which only Espers were capable of. With the image of Hyper Dragon Eye in his mind, Marth opened his physical eyes, splicing the two realities into one. Obviously, he couldn't reveal a third eye or giant summoning circle to those in his surroundings, so he made sure to bridge those features into a subvisual level of existence.

The projection was complete, and there was still one minute and fifty seconds on the clock. Marth flipped to the next page in his exam book, and just like a uneducated peasant's delusions of an ancient dragon's capabilities, he felt the secrets of those in his surroundings. His third eye darted around from left to right, gazing upon the completed papers of his peers. Answer 53, E=mc2. Answer 54, "Malcom's Theorum solves for the natural fluctuations of space time after becoming cached in the Astral Flow". Marth's hands raced wildly as he wrote in answers gathered from the students around him. Answer 55, "Effects from personal reality cannot be affected by magic because magic affects the physics of the world, whereas personal reality is outside of that space."

One minute remained, then thirty seconds, then ten. Marth scrambled to write in the last stolen answer.

"Pencils down. The exam is complete."


St. Ezreal's campus was lit up by the sun as students exited the Astral Science Studies building. ASS.

"That test was ASS", Marth pouted, with one hand holding his book bag slung over his shoulder and the other in his pocket. He had a concerned look on his face as he walked close eyed down the concrete path which separated two sections of grass.

"At least I finished, and those answers seemed Okay.", he consoled.

The other students who had been taking the entrance exam were walking in the same direction. There were school uniforms of all the nearby highschools, as well as uniforms Marth had never seen before.

"Hey you!", an unfamiliar voice pitched in, Marth opening an eye to see.

There standing before him, was a long brown haired girl with arms crossed. She was wearing one of the uniforms Marth hadn’t recognized, and boy did she look pissed off. Is this some kind of lovers quarrel? Marth looked behind him to see who she was talking to.

"No, you! You right there with that dumb look on your face!", she barked, and now he got it. She standing there with a fancy looking, one piece off-white skirt uniform and a book bag in one hand.

"Um, what do you want?"

"You said something about Shizuma and made her blush. What was it?!", the girl asked brazenly, as she clenched her free fist. It looked like a vein in her forehead would pop at any second. Marth didn't want to make a scene, but if this girl kept up, there was about to be one regardless.

"Oh that, that was uhh..", Marth didn't know what to say. If he came right out and said what he said earlier, she might get the wrong idea, as if he were a stalker or something.

"What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of your stupid mumbling face!" The girl rudely piped. She was serious. People were starting to look. Marth was even more speechless now, because of the weird crazy girl in front of him.

"Ummm", A new voice quietly spoke. Marth and the crazy girl turned to see the same platinum blonde girl from before.

"Tanaka-chan, you shouldn't yell at strangers." The platinum blonde girl spoke, her words barely escaping from her bright red face as if she were afraid to talk.

Tanaka's expression changed from enraged to surprised, as she turned to see Shizuma's blushing face. Her escapade was over as she rushed over to Shizuma, grasping her on the shoulders.

"Are you Okay, Shizuma? I didn't mean to make you blush. Please don't cry!", she pleaded as before she turned away from Marth. "We're not done here, I'll talk to you later!"

The two scurried away and Marth sighed, relieved.

"Actually, you are done.", An man's voice echoed. Startled, Marth turned to see a tall slender man in the shadows. He wore dark flared pants, pointy shined shoes, a partially buttoned white long sleeve shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a black choker. His hair was silver, short and combed, with hair covering part of his face.

"Who are you?", Marth questioned.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The man said as he stood up from his leaned position against a shadowed wall. "I am Aldo. Fifth pillar of St. Ezreal.", he pronounced, before dramatically opening one hand and covering half of his face. His other hand opened, stretched out towards Marth.

"You have been found guilty of cheating on your entrance exam. You will not be attending this Academy!"


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