The next morning, Saya made it to the Shinra Building fifteen minutes early. Angeal was there waiting for her when she reached the SOLDIER floor, and was the one who officially declared her SOLDIER, second class, 2nd grade. The girl tried to be as excited as she would have been if Cissnei hadn't told her. If Angeal knew any better, he didn't let it on.
"Because your uniform was custom-made, you'll have to wait a few days for a replacement in your new color. However, we can give you your new crest right now." He'd explained. After switching it out, she had to admit just having the small badge to commemorate her efforts was encouraging.
"You just might be the fastest one to make first. Above even Sephiroth." He joked.
After he was done teasing her, Angeal took her over to the Materia Room so that she could sign up for training. Apparently, it was like any other serious skill one wanted to develop, and wouldn't be all that easy.
"Up to this point, your natural talent and hard work has helped you get through everything. But with materia it's much different from training your body or hitting the books; you have to learn how to resonate with the materia. At least… that's what I was told during training. It took me quite a while to figure out how to make it work for me."
Saya didn't bother asking how long it had taken Sephiroth to learn how to use materia, but knowing that it had given Angeal a run for his money alleviated some of the "first try" pressure. The familiar face of the scientist who had overseen her physical evaluation helped a bit as well.
"Oh, Saya, I didn't know you'd be by so soon."
"This is Arthur Tandem; he's been working here for quite a while…"
Angeal laughed as Arthur retorted he was there when the "two kids from Banora decided they would master materia in a single day and proceeded to freeze each other using a blizzard materia."
"Yeah, Genesis and I could be pretty unruly when we first got here."
"They turned out alright, though. And you guys have done pretty well for yourselves, huh?"
The 1st tried to be as humble as possible as he dismissed the compliment and asked Arthur to help Saya out as best he could.
"I have to head up to Director Dalton's office, so I won't be able to stay and watch you get started. But I'm sure you'll do just fine. Stick with it and, please, don't try to get it down in one day."
"I won't. Thanks, Angeal."
He exchanged a glance with the two of them before leaving the room, and Saya turned back towards Arthur. Taking a longer look at him, it was a bit more apparent that he was in his late 30's. He didn't have the typical 'specs one would expect from a researcher, but his short hair and lab coat made up for that somewhat.
"Now, each 2nd class SOLDIER only gets around half an hour a day to practice dedicated materia usage. I know it isn't much, but until you get comfortable using it in actual combat, you'll have to fit into the same time schedule everyone else does. Today you can spend a full hour on it, since no one signed out the time slot after yours, but starting tomorrow that will probably change."
Saya acknowledged his statement and said she was eager to get started. Arthur walked over to a console and typed a few keys on his computer. After pressing "ENTER", a drawer slid open containing a glowing sphere that looked like a small universe to her. Picking it up, Arthur walked back over to the SOLDIER and handed it to her.
"This will be your first materia. It's a magic type; meaning it allows you to cast spells of varying effects and intensity."
Saya took the materia into her hand and noticed that it felt quite cool, and almost moist. There was a light, almost minty green color to it. It was as if she were holding a sphere of semi-frozen gel. Considering it didn't activate as soon as it touched her hand, the 2nd class SOLDIER guessed that you had to consciously use whatever the ability was.
"That materia is called barrier. When you activate it, the spell will cast a shield around your entire body that defends from physical attacks and damage. It won't protect against other spells, however. When you're in the field, it'll be hard to tell sometimes what kind of ability is a physical one and which is… well… magical."
"I read that there's another materia called 'wall' which protects from both kinds of damage."
Arthur nodded and told her that was true, though it was a far rarer- and thus, more valuable materia. After assuring her that the orb wouldn't break if she gripped it too tightly or let it drop to the floor, Arthur had her walk into the testing room. As soon as she stepped into the center of the room, the computer instantly summoned a Wutaian soldier.
"I'll warn you; learning how to use this materia might be a bit painful, but just remember that you're not in any actual danger."
Saya tried to let that reassure her as Arthur ran her through the basics of using materia.
"The more you use materia, the greater your affinity for it is. This means that if you use materia frequently your ability to use materia of different kinds and for longer periods increases. If you rarely use it, you will likewise not be attuned to the energy you need to cast spells or use other abilities. The energy store you have available for materia usage is not linked to your stamina. That means you can exhaust your reserve of energy available for materia, but not for physical combat."
It made sense so far, and it was good to know that even if she messed up with materia, falling back on physical combat was always an option.
"Now, the traditional system of teaching people how to use materia- the kind they use in cultures such as Wutai –places heavy emphasis on meditation and focusing on each specific materia's desired effect. This lets you learn how to control it over time. Of course… in Midgar we don't have as much free time as they do, and SOLDIERs in particular don't have all day to sit on a cushion and meditate. So we take a different approach."
Suddenly, the wutaian soldier leapt into action and aimed the rifle end of his weapon at her. Saya quickly dodged his attack and grabbed the hilt of her sword- as the crack of another weapon sounded out behind her. There wasn't any time to react before the bullet sped through the air and hit- a barrier, falling harmlessly to the floor as the energy around Saya glowed. She stood there in awe of the indescribable visual effect the materia had just as much as its practical effect.
"Sorry to trick you like that, but it's an effective way to show our approach to teaching the usage of materia. Anyone can use it, but the reason why SOLDIERs and Turks tend to be experts at it is due to their combat training. The heightened emotions you experience in a battle- combined with your trained reflexes and thought process as a warrior –increase your affinity for using materia. When you sense an attack coming from behind, you instantly try to react in a defensive manner; like you did when the soldier in front of you aimed and fired. Then, when you sensed the hidden soldier behind you attack, you got that reaction again. The difference was that you physically could not react to it. That reflex and desire to keep yourself from harm activated the materia."
Saya gazed down at the small sphere in her hand, marveling at how something that looked like a work of art could do such a thing. As she pondered on it, though, an idea occurred to her.
"Arthur, you said that a person needs a certain amount of affinity and materia energy to use their materia, right?"
"That's correct."
"So what happens if you do this training exercise with a SOLDIER who doesn't have enough to use the materia?
"Erm… we usually end up apologizing and locking them in until they cool down."
Saya didn't know whether to shiver or laugh, but a smile won over on the facial front.
"Alright. I'm feeling pretty comfortable right now, so could you run that program for me again?"
Arthur told her that he would, and in a blink the state of the room had reset.
"Oh, but could you change something for me?"
"Sure, Saya, what is it?"
"Could you put a few more soldiers in here? Now that I know about the one behind me, I don't think it'll work like before."
The scientist seemed to hesitate, but soon filled the room with eight more soldiers at her request. Saya said that should be enough, and then readied herself. The attacks came quickly and without mercy. The SOLDIER operative ended up dashing, leaping, rolling and even performing a few surprising cartwheels as she vied to escape the enemies' bullets. Whenever she would slip up and roll into a corner or take too long to land after a jump, the barrier materia activated to protect her. As it did, Saya could feel a certain well of energy in herself depleting; like she had been exercising without eating or drinking for hours. It eventually reached the point where she had to start fighting back just to get enough dead space to ask Arthur to stop the simulation.
"Did you reach your limit?"
"I think so." She responded, placing her sword back in its resting place.
"That was pretty good, Saya! It's only been half an hour, and you already have a good understanding of how to use the barrier materia! Other spells aren't as easy to cast, but this is a good start. How about we take a quick break so you can restore your energy and then tackle another materia? I'll even let you pick what kind you want to use."
Saya agreed to the generous idea and left the testing area of the Materia Room. There still weren't many scientists around, so they had plenty of space to sit down and talk.
"So, what do you think you'll want to try next?" Arthur asked her after some casual conversation.
"Hm… I'm not sure. I don't have a very aggressive personality, so I don't think I would be very good at using the combat materia."
Arthur smiled and told her that she didn't have to keep a deep desire for burning people alive to use fire, or a fascination with sinkholes to use quake.
"I understand what you mean, though. You seem to favor disarming your enemy more than destroying them. After all, if you didn't know there was a bonus for defeating your evaluation enemies non-lethally, there wouldn't be any reason for you to do so."
Saya simply nodded and admitted she really didn't like hurting people. Even attacking the monsters didn't appeal to her very much. Arthur seemed to think on it for a bit, and then walked back over to his console and retrieved another materia. When the scientist returned to her the materia he was holding had a much deeper green color.
"This is called 'silence', or 'seal' if you're a purist. But it casts silence. You use this materia to disable an enemy's ability to use materia."
The orb didn't look much different from the barrier materia, and yet it had such a drastically different effect? She almost found it hard to believe. Saya eventually took the new materia into her free hand and examined it.
"It isn't permanent, of course, but a few seconds in a battle can make a huge difference, as I'm sure you know. If you don't want to kill your enemies, then weakening them with status effects will make it much easier for you to subdue them in a more humane manner."
Saya let the glowing sphere linger in her mind for a bit longer before asking Arthur if they could start practicing with the 'silence' materia.
By the time her hour was up, Saya had learned how to effectively use the silence materia as well. Arthur made a point of reminding her that being able to use materia in a controlled environment and using them in a battlefield scenario were quite different. She assured him, though, that she wouldn't be pushing her luck anytime soon. Given that her current uniform had no way of storing materia for use, she deposited the barrier and silence orbs back into the console for safekeeping.
With no active assignments, Saya found herself lounging in the rest area of the SOLDIER floor for a few minutes. As her body caught a break, the notion of doing more research on the forty-fifth floor built up until she conceded. The 2nd did it on the condition that she could at least be lazy and take the elevator down the four measly stories. As it was, she hadn't made much progress the night before. There were far more reports to sift through than the girl had been expecting, and none of them had given her any indication that there were chiropterans active in Midgar. The only odd tint to the recent reports compared to earlier ones were the increased aggression exhibited by such monsters. Honestly, she didn't even know what to look for now.
"I guess I could check to see if there are fewer actual monsters around. If nobody is going missing and there are no mysterious deaths, maybe the chiropterans could be feeding on the monsters."
Saya called an elevator and waited for it to arrive. She didn't have any other ideas, so that was the best she had to go on right now.
"Huh? Who could that be?" She wondered while pulling out her phone. It was a call from Angeal. She immediately flipped it open and asked him what was going on.
"Director Dalton told me that he had a mission for you. From what I heard, it sounded pretty big."
"Really? So soon? I didn't expect to receive any kind of big assignments for a while."
"Things move fast at Shinra. Now that you're a 2nd, you'll be in much higher demand than before. The assignments will be more dangerous as well. I can try to get someone to fill in for you if you're really not feeling up to it."
"Oh, no. I just meant I was surprised they would have a mission lined up for me so early. I thought they would expect me to learn how to use materia better before sending me on a big mission."
Angeal asked her how the materia training was going, and by the time she finished explaining her elevator had arrived. With nothing more to discuss, the two said their goodbyes as she entered the elevator and rode it up to the next floor. When the door opened, she walked down the short hallway and turned left to walk into the director's office. She was surprised to see other 2nds there as well, but the greatest reveal was Genesis, leaning against a wall by the director's desk. He shot her a smile which she returned as the others noticed the newcomer.
"Ah, Saya. I see Angeal got ahold of you. I hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"No, I was actually looking for something to do. What can I do for you, Director?"
"We've discovered an island base under the control of the Wutaian rebels. There is supposedly a facility inside producing anti-SOLDIER monsters for their war efforts. We are sending a contingent of Shinra and SOLDIER troops to the island to neutralize the enemy forces and investigate such a possibility. When I saw how well you did on your evaluation, I decided to assign you to the mission."
"Thank you for thinking of me, sir. I promise not to let anyone down."
Smiling, Director Dalton explained that their group would be tasked with infiltrating the supposed "monster creation complex" that was suspected to be on the island. As such, it would be a demanding mission on her combat abilities. As the Director was about to explain more mission details, one of the 2nds spoke up. Saya instantly recognized Emil Harkman's voice.
"Sir, if this unit is going to be fighting against anti-SOLDIER monsters, do you think it's safe to send a 3rd on that mission? Even if they are second grade?"
Both Genesis and Dalton's smiles seemed to grow at Emil's concern, and Saya noticed with a bit of guilt that Harkman, proudly clad in his new 2nd class uniform, had only a bronze Shinra crest.
"As a matter of fact, Saya is a 2nd as well. We merely haven't gotten the opportunity to produce a new uniform in the right shade. I don't think anyone expected her to do poorly during the evaluation, but we certainly didn't expect a near-perfect score."
The other 2nds turned back towards Saya in surprise, and she experienced the desire to shrink away from all the attention.
"I think Saya scored higher than even one of the 1sts did, no?" Genesis added.
The Director nodded, and Emil quickly apologized for the affront before going quiet.
"Now, you won't be departing for at least a couple of days. Several of you are still new to the experience of being 2nds, particularly the intensity of combat and usage of materia. So there will be a three-day grace period for you to train before shipping out. To make up for the short time, you will each get a full hour of training during your time in the materia room. You can also opt out of this mission during the three day period. This is an uncommon situation, and you will rarely get the opportunity to refuse a mission. But given the suddenness and danger of the mission, this will be an exceptional case."
Saya let the words sink in. Three days wasn't much to learn how to use materia effectively enough to go into combat, but she was confident in her abilities. If anyone opted out of the mission, it wouldn't be her.