Divine Milking System

Misato’s phone screen glowed bright enough that I could read "Assessment Results Available" from where I stood. She tapped it once. The screen loaded.

Then she just stared.

"What?" Belle said.

Misato didn’t answer. Her thumb stayed frozen over the screen. Her face had gone completely blank in that way people do right before they either scream or pass out.

Jordan shuffled closer and tried to look at the phone. Misato pulled it away from him.

"Hey. Rude."

"They’re doing a broadcast," Misato said.

"What?"

"The rankings. They’re not just posting them. They’re doing a whole ceremony thing."

I grabbed my own phone. Sure enough, a notification banner filled the top of my screen.

FIRST ASSESSMENT RESULTS - LIVE BROADCAST AT NOON

MANDATORY ATTENDANCE FOR ALL FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

LOCATION: HARBOR DISTRICT AMPHITHEATER

Belle read over my shoulder. Her blue hair tickled my neck.

"You’ve got to be kidding."

"Why would they make us sit through this?" Naomi’s voice came out quiet. Tired. "Just post the numbers."

"Because suffering is educational," Jordan said. He pulled out a piece of candy from his pocket. Watermelon flavored. Unwrapped it with the slow movements of someone conserving energy. "They want us to feel it when we fail. Public shame builds character or something."

Misato put her phone away. Her jaw set hard.

"Harbor District. Now. If we’re late, it counts against house points."

We filed out of the arena and joined the flood of other first-years heading south toward the water. The campus suddenly looked like someone had kicked an anthill. Students everywhere, all moving in the same direction, all wearing their house colors on their blazer trim like armies going to war.

Sapphire blue. Ruby red. Emerald green. Amber gold. Obsidian black.

Five hundred students crammed onto paths designed for maybe two hundred at most.

Belle walked beside me with her arms crossed. Her phone kept buzzing. She ignored it.

"This is stupid," she said.

"Yeah."

"Making us walk all the way down there just to see numbers on a screen."

"Builds suspense."

"Builds resentment."

Naomi moved a few feet ahead with some Sapphire girls she’d met during weapons training. One of them kept glancing back at me with curiosity. Her friend whispered something. They both giggled.

Great. Word was spreading.

The path opened up and we spilled into the Harbor District. The amphitheater where I’d woken up six days ago now filled with confused, anxious teenagers. Same stone seats carved into the hillside. Same massive stage. Same ocean view stretching forever behind everything.

Someone had set up a projection screen the size of a house.

Students sorted themselves by house instinctively. Obsidian took the left section. Sapphire the right. Ruby, Emerald, and Amber scattered through the middle like they couldn’t decide where they belonged.

The Midnight Foxes found seats near the middle of the Obsidian section. Not front row where the guild kids sat. Not back row with the lottery rejects who’d already given up. Middle. Where we’d earned after clearing an A-rank gate.

Jordan immediately put his head down on the stone bench in front of him.

"Wake me when democracy dies."

Belle sat on my right. Naomi on my left. The gap between me and Naomi felt like miles even though our shoulders almost touched.

The screen flickered to life at exactly noon.

A logo appeared. San Nicolas Academy crest spinning in three dimensions like we’d never seen it before.

Then two people walked onto the stage. A man in an expensive suit and a woman in a blazer that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe from my old life.

The woman smiled at the crowd. Her teeth were so white they reflected the California sun.

"Good afternoon, students! Welcome to your first official ranking ceremony!"

Her voice boomed through speakers hidden somewhere in the stone. Professional. Enthusiastic. Like she was announcing lottery numbers instead of determining which teenagers survived and which got crushed under the weight of their own inadequacy.

The man beside her nodded like a game show host.

"Today marks a critical milestone in your journey as hunters. Your first gate assessment. Your first combat evaluation. Your first taste of real danger."

"Jesus Christ," Belle muttered. "Just show the rankings."

"We understand you’re eager to see results," the woman continued. "But before we reveal the top squads, we want to emphasize something important."

The screen changed. A graph appeared showing squad performance metrics tracked across multiple categories.

"These rankings represent your starting positions. Not your final destinations. You have an entire semester ahead. Ten weeks to climb, to fall, to prove what you’re truly made of."

The man took over.

"Every month, you’ll face new assessments. New gates. New challenges. Rankings will shift. Today’s top squad could be next month’s bottom five. Today’s struggling squad could become winter champions."

The woman’s smile never wavered.

"Now. Let’s begin with squads fifteen through eleven. These teams showed promise but have room for significant improvement."

The screen shifted to display five squad names with photos of their members.

RANK 15: STEEL TALONS - HOUSE EMERALD

Five faces appeared. Three guys. Two girls. All looking nervous in their official photos. The woman’s voice narrated their performance.

"Steel Talons cleared their E-rank gate in fifty-one minutes with eighteen cores recovered. Solid fundamentals but slow execution. Their coordination score was seventy-two percent. Room to grow."

RANK 14: GOLDEN PHOENIXES - HOUSE AMBER

More faces. Mostly lottery kids by the look of them. Cheap uniforms. Uncomfortable smiles.

"Golden Phoenixes completed their gate in forty-nine minutes with sixteen cores. Their teamwork scored highest in their bracket at eighty-eight percent. However, their combat efficiency needs work."

Jordan lifted his head slightly.

"Amber got someone in the top fifteen. That’s actually impressive for them."

RANK 13: EMERALD SERPENTS - HOUSE EMERALD

RANK 12: CRIMSON BLADES - HOUSE RUBY

RANK 11: SAPPHIRE SHIELDS - HOUSE SAPPHIRE

The announcements continued. Each squad got thirty seconds of analysis. Their clear times. Their core counts. Their strengths and weaknesses laid out for everyone to judge.

My leg bounced. I couldn’t stop it.

Belle noticed. Her hand came down on my knee. Firm. Grounding.

"Calm down."

"I’m calm."

"Your leg is having a seizure."

I forced it still.

The woman on stage clasped her hands together like she was about to announce the winners of a baking competition.

"Now we move into our top ten squads! These teams demonstrated exceptional performance for first-year students. They showed coordination, tactical awareness, and the combat prowess we expect from San Nicolas graduates!"

The screen wiped clean.

RANK 10: OBSIDIAN VANGUARD - HOUSE OBSIDIAN

Four guys. One girl. All guild kids by their uniforms. Custom tailoring. Confident expressions.

"Obsidian Vanguard cleared in forty-one minutes with twenty-three cores. Strong individual performance but coordination could improve. Rated B-rank overall."

Belle leaned forward.

"Twenty-three cores. Same as us."

"We had an alpha," I said.

"Exactly."

RANK 9: ROSE DRAGONS - HOUSE RUBY

RANK 8: AZURE SENTINELS - HOUSE SAPPHIRE

My pulse kicked up. We weren’t in the bottom five. That meant we’d made top ten at minimum.

But top ten wasn’t top five.

Top ten didn’t win the bet.

The man’s voice took over.

"As we enter our elite seven squads, you’ll notice something interesting. These teams didn’t just complete their assessments. They dominated them."

RANK 7: MIDNIGHT FOXES - HOUSE OBSIDIAN

My face appeared on screen.

Then Naomi’s. Belle’s. Jordan’s. Misato’s.

We looked absolutely ridiculous in our official photos. Jordan’s eyes were half-closed. Belle’s smile was fake as hell. I looked like someone had told me to smile for a mugshot.

Only Naomi and Misato looked remotely professional.

The woman’s voice filled the amphitheater.

"Midnight Foxes. A fascinating squad composition. Four lottery admissions and one guild-affiliated first-year. They cleared their E-rank gate in thirty-seven minutes with twenty-one cores including one alpha-class hostile."

The crowd made noise. Murmurs spreading through the sections.

An alpha in an E-rank gate. That was the irregularity.

"Their coordination score was ninety-one percent. Combat efficiency was exceptional. They received an A-rank evaluation. The highest rating for any first-year squad made up of multiple lottery students this assessment cycle."