- Michael -

I slowly opened my eyes as the dust subsided.

“Y-You… Why?”

The bewildered heir to the Belrick family laid at my back as I held his shield forward. The strength in my left arm eluded me and the rocks cradling my knee scraped at my flesh. I tried standing, proving successful with the use of magic. Gauging my wounds, I sighed with annoyance.

“It’s broken huh? Of course it is.” With my clothes in tatters and my arm injured, I released the shield and retrieved Arthur’s arming sword. “I’ll be borrowing this.” It had since shrunk back into a short sword, now usable with one hand.

The teacher rushed onto the stage. “Hey! Are you alright-“

“I’m fine. More importantly, treat the student behind me. He’s gravely injured.” While I did protect him from the blast, he still sustained most of the injuries in my stead. There were deep gashes down his back and he most likely suffered a concussion.

Staring at Aidin, I didn’t release the sword in my grip. “Do you realize what you’ve done? You could have killed him.”

Aidin scratched his head passively. “That would just mean he’s weak. The weak lose, that’s reality.”

My gaze never faltered as I confronted him. “Are you implying that you’re strong? Someone like you who doesn’t even know how to control his own Magic?” Such obvious taunting should have been ignored, but as Michael expected, Aidin couldn’t allow a challenge to his authority to stand.

Aidin glared daggers at Michael. He raised his hand and Essence began to gather as barely a few meters separated them. “Do you wanna fight too? I’m willing to send you to the infirmary with your friend over there if you’d like." Though he was putting up a strong front, his hands were shaking. Creating that large mass of Essence earlier was seriously draining, even for him. I smirked confidently. “Be my guest.”

Without hesitation, Aidin fired a Magic bullet straight at my face. I twisted my torso and quickly swerved my body to the left, easily evading his attack. Activating the magic scripting on my arms and legs, I amplified my movement speed and bulleted at Aidin. Instead of using Perfect Enhancement, for the past few weeks I’ve used a much weaker version of the Algorithm. This variant allows my body to keep up with the speed of my movements until I can master the real one.

My vision blurred as I hurled my arm toward Aidin’s chest. Though he blocked with a last minute Essence barrier, the impact from the strike propelled him back a few meters, causing him to lose his footing. The rebound from the barrier reverted the force of my attack, bending the blade of my sword as my wrist went numb.

Damn it. At this rate...

Aidin stood up clumsily, visibly wincing at his injured shoulder. Anger overtook him and he began charging his attack once again when we were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“That’s enough.” Edward approached with his hands tucked in his pockets, this time wearing a more subtle black tux. The instructor who was currently trying to stop us turned upon hearing the voice and gasped in surprise. “Principal Edward! I apologize for this disappointing display.”

“Don’t mind it. I’ve come on personal business anyways.” He began slowly clapping his hands, “You never cease to amaze me Michael. I ask you to recruit a student into the council, and you instigate deathmatches with them. Fascinating indeed.”

“But-

“Save it. It seems you're not ready for this task yet.”

My face burned as he reprimanded me. I grit my teeth with downcast eyes. “Even if I acted rashly, I don’t believe my actions were wrong. A kid like this shouldn’t be allowed in the Council!” I felt everyone's stares boring into me, putting my nerves on edge. The pain from my wounds began surfacing, my arm and leg aching incessantly. Edward paused for a moment before speaking again.

“I see. If you’re so determined then let me present you with another opportunity.” Edward turned to Aidin, making eye contact. “If Michael here could beat you in a fight, would you be willing to join our student council?”

Aidin glanced at Michael then responded. “I wouldn’t get any enjoyment out of crushing a cornered rat.”

Edward smiled at this, “I thought as much. Then how about this? As you two know, the freshmen are currently choosing their divisions. Two months from now the school will be hosting a series of tournaments for this purpose.” He lowered his voice, assuming a more serious tone. “You guys will have your opportunity to fight, I guarantee it. So rest for now.”

I struggled to remain conscious as splotches of black inhibited my vision and the drum of blood reverberated in my head. I glanced at Aidin, noticing his fatigue becoming apparent. As exhaustion took hold of my body, The last thing I saw was Julia running to my side before passing out.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The young boy stared out the window of the car as the man spoke. His eyes glazed over the town he once lived in, now destroyed beyond recognition.

“Nothing” the boy finally decided to say. He had no more purpose. His family, friends, and home were lost and there was no one left to impress. Nothing left to protect.

“Nothing? What about a weapon maker like your mom?” The man sat beside him in the car trying his best to comfort the boy. The man was also stricken with grief, but knew that the boy had it much worse. When the boy didn’t respond, the man didn't know what else to say. Nonetheless, he gathered his wits and racked his brain for something. Anything.

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Eventually, the man found something and smiled at the boy. “Hey. Do you know what a magician is?”

The boy turned his head in surprise. “A magician?”

“Yes. They’re amazing people who fly through the skies and can touch the stars.”

The boy beamed “Those men my father told me about that can do anything?” His father often spoke of them to him, putting dreams of glory and adventure in his heart.

The man replied, “Yeah!”

The boy was fascinated, but his smile dissipated as quickly as it came. “If I became one of those men… could I bring father and mother back?” The boy may have survived, but everything that he loved, and all the things he cared about were killed. All the things that made life worth living were no longer in this world.

The man was taken aback by this. Memories of his old friend came pouring into his mind, and his eyes began to sting. Taking a slow, deep breath, he looked the boy in the eye with a resolute smile. “Yeah. I’m sure you can.”

The scene began to fade and consciousness returned to me. I awoke to the familiar feeling of my bed on my back, and the sound of jubilant laughter.

“Gotcha! That’s the third time!”

“But-How is this even happening!”

My head throbbed heavily. Upon attempting to sit up, a numbing pain shot through my body. I stifled a groan and turned my head to see Julia and Emi playing cards on the coffee table. Emi held her stomach and giggled uncontrollably.

“You suck at this game Julie!”

“What? You’re just getting lucky!”

I smiled weakly. I watched them silently for a few minutes before Julia lost motivation to play. She eventually noticed my gaze.

“You were awake?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

I chucked meekly “Long enough to see you lose miserably.”

“If you can say that, you're definitely fine.”

Julia stood up and plundered a water bottle and some snacks from my pantry. She walked over to my bed and sat on the edge. “Here, have some water.”

I frowned, slightly disappointed, “And here I thought you’d made me some homemade cooking.” I drank from the water bottle with Julia’s help and sat up, resting my back against the headboard of my bed.

“How long was I out?” I examined the room idly. There were no windows present so the time of day was unknown. I looked at my chronograph and it read 0900.

“Besides a little shuffling in your sleep, you’ve been out for a whole day now.” She began tearing open the chip bags while Emi happily tapped her data card “After the thing with Aidin, you were taken to the infirmary before being transported home.”

I remembered the events that transpired the day prior. Just thinking about it made me annoyed and my brow furrowed in frustration. That kid is so naive. He thinks he can do anything because he’s talented, without having to worry about the people around him. But I know from experience. I know that no matter how talented you are, or how important of a person you may be, one day you’ll meet something. Something so powerful, so evil that you couldn’t hope to fight it. And in that moment, you’ll think in your head. I wish I was stronger. I wish I worked harder, made more allies, and relied on the people around me. But by then, the damage will have already been done.

Julia responded with concern, “Hey, you alright?”

“That bastard acts with no regard for others. His blatant ignorance pisses me off.”

Julia studied me as I vented my frustrations. She gave me a light smile. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s focus on recovering first and get back at him at the tournament.”

Her words calmed me down a bit and I took a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.”

The two left the room soon after to let me sleep. After resting for the next few weeks, with the occasional visits from Julia and Emi, a month passed by in the blink of an eye. Stretching my arms, I shook the pain and stiffness out of my body. After putting on my school uniform and equipping a satchel, I fastened my shoes and promptly exited my domain. Waiting for me outside were Julia and Emi. They sat on the sidewalk bench that rested just outside my lawn facing the road. My door closed behind me and I jogged over to them.

Emi noticed me approaching and smiled widely. “Hey Mikey! Julia and I were just talking about-”

Julia quickly covered Emi’s mouth. “-about where we’d go today!”

I raised a brow quizzically. “Aren’t we going to the Shopping District today?”

“Y-Yeah, of course. Hurry, we should get going.” She started toward the transport cell down the street, dragging Emi with her. I followed behind them, curious about what Emi was going to say. Was it about me? Naw, probably not. I dropped the idea as soon as it came. I wasn’t being pessimistic. Between the two of them, there’s just no way they’d be talking about me. There’s nothing noteworthy about me after all. We stepped into the empty transport cell and spread out around the chamber. I looked around awkwardly as the three of us waited in silence.

“So what were you guys planning to buy?”

“Is that something you should ask a girl?” Julia replied.

I sighed inwardly. This is what I get for trying to start a conversation. Now I know for sure that there’s no chance she was talking about me earlier, seeing as she’s so readily hostile towards me. Nonetheless, I was still hoping in the back of my mind that I was the topic of their conversation.

Emi was less secretive and shared her plans openly. “I’m going to buy a game that came out last month! I hope they released it in this sector.”

Her words took me by surprise. “I never piqued you as a gamer. What games do you play?”

“Hmm… My favorite games are Cuddle Bugs and Constellation. The little things are so cute and I can’t get over the visuals!”

Damn it. Not only are those games both non-competitive, they’re both singleplayer! After hearing Emi’s plans, Julia hesitantly decided to share her intentions.

“I was thinking of buying the newest datacard from Sync.”

“Seriously? Version 7.4 is basically identical to its predecessor.”

Julia sighed. “I know! And it doesn’t help that every time you buy one, a new one comes out practically the next month!”

“I don’t know how you have the money to buy those all the time.”

“Yeah Julie. You have a whole collection of them in your room!”

We laughed as Julia hid her blushing face in her bag. She was such a tech nerd. I was surprised to hear that she signed up for the school’s combat division even though her magic was practically tailored to the engineering division. Whether it’s her actions or aspirations, I can never get a grasp on this girl.

Our ride quickly reached its destination and the three of us exited the transport cell. Upon stepping out, we were greeted with an explosive welcome. The place was bustling with life, as hundreds of people were milling back and forth. We were bombarded with an assortment of bright signs lighting up the sky and the sound of electronic advertising calls echoing throughout the area. An enthusiastic voice rang out over the crowd, repeating an emphatic phrase.

“Welcome to the Sunimert Shopping District!”