When I saw Jenkins at the door, I felt my chest tighten, but Orchid gently pushed me to do something other than stay still. So I did the first thing that came to mind, and I walked up towards them, pushing Barbra out of the way, startling my cousin.

  “H-hello.”

  “You didn’t call,” they noted.

  I nodded, “So I assume you’re going to arrest me or something?”

  “Wait, what’s this about?” I heard Barbra say.

  “It is not at my discretion to say, but ostensibly I am arresting Jackob Davidson.”

  “Do you have a warrant?”

  “Yes,” then they pulled out a legal document from their Jacket and gave it to Barbra.

  She looked over it, biting her nail, and while she was doing that, the commotion gained an audience.

  “What’s happening?” Boe asked, giving Jenkins a hard glare.

  “It’s alright, just go back to what y'all were doing, I... I agreed to this,” I pleaded with them, but it didn’t work.

  Everybody seemed to join in to try to defend me from Jenkins, and I tried to feel some joy from it. But it was hard to when I knew it was useless, but I still let them go on until they ran out of steam.

  One of the tirades Boe went on, ending like, “And there’s no damn reason I’m giving you my brother.”

  Then he went to slam the door, but I stopped it with a hand, my shoulder aching at the impact. Then I stepped outside, everybody looking at me with confusion, even Jenkins.

  Then I said, “Sorry, but this was… the best way.” Then I closed the door behind me, leaning my weight into it so they couldn’t get to me.

  When I felt them stop trying, I let out a sigh and started walking away, gesturing to Jenkins to follow me.

  “Where are we going?” I asked

  “To that van,” He pointed towards a car I only saw kidnappers with in movies, colored black with tinted windows. A few gruff men in official looking outfits around an in it.

  “You ain’t going to put a bag over my head or anything, right?”

  Jenkins snorted, “No.’

  The rest of the trip in the car was quiet. The dim back of the van was rocking me and smelling faintly of BO and a hint of cigarettes, the cold metal of the van wall pressed up against my back, only separated by the thin fabric of my shirt.

  Then the car suddenly stoped and I was escorted out into a small parking garage without a single other car inside. And I was taken to what looked like a cliche interrogation room, gray everything, metal furniture, and a harsh white light above. I was honestly disappointed. I was expecting something big, not just another room with rude people.

  Then I was sat down and left alone in the room for around an hour, which I found annoying, but I kept myself entertained. Mainly by experimenting around with Urg and Seconds souls, which once again did nothing. So I moved on to messing with my skills, primarily Stealth, since I had skrewed with its construction, and now it was tearing at the seams.

  But before I could make any real headway with that, the door opened, and three people walked into the room. The first was Jenkins, the second was a fair skinned woman with stiff posture holding a binder and wearing a lab coat, the third was a bald man around a decade older than me and wearing a military uniform that I didn’t know.

  The woman sat in the chair across from me, putting down her binder and opening it to reveal a litany of notes and blank paper to be written on. While the Military man stood menacingly behind her, and Jenkins stayed in the corner of the room.

  After organising her already pristine notes, the woman said, “My name is Dr. Isabella Bekert, and you are Jacob Davidson, born 2002 January 10th, yes or no?”

  I nodded.

  Jenkin commented from the corner of the room, “Answer verbally.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I rolled my eyes, then said with a sarcastic tone, “No, I'm definitely not.”

  Then I felt a burst of mana come from Dr. Bekert; it felt agitated and was directed towards me. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise, but it wasn’t aggressive.

  Then Bekert pushed the glasses up her nose, “Please answer it seriously, are you Jacob Davidson, Born 2002 January 10th, yes or no?”

  I tilted my head, focusing on my magical sense as I said, “Yes.”

  “Thank you.”

  I didn’t feel her mana react again.

  Then she said with the tap of a pencil against the table, “You have an ability that allows you to be unnoticed by people around you, yes or no.”

  “Yes.”

  She scribbled something down, “You realised you had this ability after seeing the portal open, or some time after, yes or no.”

  I chewed my cheek; I had Stealth long before that. But I did think I had lost all non Core Skills, and only noticed I didn’t when B-Orchid pointed it out. So I hesitantly said, “Yes.”

  And her lie detector didn’t react.

  ‘Ha, finally, something that failed on technicalities!’

  Then she said, “Did you notice a digital screen appearing before you that resembled a video game when you gained your ability, yes or no?”

  I looked at her, shocked, but tried my best to hide it.

  ‘So they knew about the system. I wonder why it showed up to them. I could understand if Magic did naturally if mana was leaking from The Great Debate. But the system, it was dead, a tool, something had to place it.’

  Then I said, “Yes.”

  “Interesting,” Dr. Beker muttered as they kept writing notes.

  I felt my heart flutter at those words.

  "What did that mean, had I messed up!?”

  “Hey,” I heard Orchid say, “That was just some muttering.”

  “I know, but-”

  “It was just some muttering. If there’s any question that you can’t answer without getting in trouble, just swap with me.”

  I took a deep, slow breath, disguising it as a sigh when I released it, “Thanks.”

  Then Dr. Beker finished scribbling, looking up at me, she moved a few things around in her binder, placing a piece of paper down, and pushed her glasses back up as she looked directly at my eyes. I looked away as she said.

  “Now the basic questions are over, it is time to discuss your arrangements for the forseeable future.”

  “Arrangements?”

  “Yes,” the bald military man spoke up for the first time, “Due to your crimes, you have been taken into the judicial system, and you have been placed under my power."

  ‘What? That sounded more like a bunch of legal buzzwords poorly slapped together meant to scare me than actual law. But…’

  I decided to let the man keep talking.

  “But I am willing to… pardon you under certain conditions.”

  ‘Yeah, this was bullshit, but I didn’t think I could scrape it off.’

  The military man expected me to ask what those conditions were, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction.

  He continued, “And those are if you serve as a Private in the Marine Corps under me, you just have to sign the paper.”

  I gritted my teeth and said, “Is there another choice? I like eating crayons as much as the next guy, but I ain’t an enthusiast like that.”

  The Marine smirked as they said, “Jail.”

  I nodded, “Ah, wonderful options. I think I’ll choose the Marines then.”

  I signed the paper, only glancing over it before I gave it to Dr. Beker

  She took it and said, “I believe we are done here.”

  Then I felt a flood of power come from her an envelope me. I stiffened, restraining myself from tearing the room apart as it wrapped itself around my jaw and body. I could feel its intent, it was meant to keep me from telling anyone anything about what had happened. Thankfully It wasn’t strong, I could tear it apart like paper mache, but it had enough energy to kill me if it exploded so close to me, so I would have to be careful.

  Closing her binder, Beker walked out of the room. The men followed, leaving me alone for another hour, which I was starting to feel was intentional. Then Jenkins showed up, alone this time, and brought me to the car that had picked me up when they first questioned me.

  “So where are you taking me?” I asked, not looking at them.

  “To your current residents."

  “Not some military black site,” I joked.

  “Nah, those haven’t been built yet, this only started a week ago, you know, give us some time. Though you will be living somewhere else when things have been set up.”

  I snorted, “So what am I supposed to tell my roommates. Hey guys, I’ve been drafted or something, and now I’m a Marine, Oorah.”

  “There was an NDA in that contract you signed, so I hope not.”

  ‘There was? I should really start reading those things.’

  After that, there was silence until I arrived at the apartment, Jenkins waving me goodbye with a smile. I walked up to the door, opening it, not expecting my roommates to jump at me with a tirade of questions. I had hoped that since it was in the middle of a workday, they wouldn’t be here. I tried to wave them off, but they didn’t take no as an answer.