Chapter 3: When Sparks Fly

“Spencer Dallen, nice to meet you all!” The glasses boy from earlier introduced himself, bowing to the class. “I may be a 1-Star, but I have a 5-Star spirit! Oh, my Ability? I can change the colour of objects. Look!” On cue, he turned his blue water bottle red.

“Ha! What a nerd!” The door-breaker guffawed. “I’m sure that would be useful in combat.” The class didn’t react.

“Daxston, was it?” Ms Reina’s voice was sharp. “I implore you not to antagonize your fellow classmates on the first day, thank you.” I personally noted that she had already known his name before he introduced himself.

“Whatever, Miss,” Daxston retorted.

Spencer was visibly upset. “I may not have a useful Ability, but I’ll still do my best for this class,” he managed, sitting back down.

Understandably, no one wanted to go next. Ms Reina resorted to pointing at the girl sitting directly to the right of Spencer, giving her a kind smile. “Could you go next for us?”

The girl stood up, looking extremely tense. She readjusted her glasses, before continuing. “Hi… I- I’m Mira Coven, a 2-Star. I’m basically a healer, so I can’t really demonstrate it right now…” she said in a soft voice.

Daxston stood up. “Well I could give you a reason to demonst- ” he was cut off as Ms Reina pointed what looked like a metal stick at him. Daxston was completely frozen.

“The Esper Nullifier,” Ms Reina announced, waving the stick. “Anyone the user targets will be immobilised, and their Ability forcibly shut down. All school faculty have it, so you may want to watch your behaviour around here.” She turned it off.

Daxston slammed his fist into the desk, but stayed silent.

Mira timidly sat back down. “Okay, you go next,” Ms Reina commanded, gesturing at the boy beside Mira.

The introductions continued uneventfully, with most of my classmates falling into the 1-2 Star category as expected. There were a couple of 3-stars though, with some interesting abilities. I noted a girl who could speak to animals, and another boy who could shapeshift, but only into animals no bigger than a large dog. After a while, it was Jonah’s turn.

“Jonah March, 1-Star! I can do some tricks with light, like this!” He stretched his hand out, the air shimmering, displaying a mirage of a rainbow as it did so. And that was the best he could do. I stared at him expectantly. He shrugged and sat back down, signalling my turn.

I stood up. Everyone looked at me. There had not been any 4-Star yet, and I would loathe the attention I would get for declaring myself as one. So I decided not to.

"Cadel Ren, 2-Star. I can make things float." I raised the chair a few inches off the ground, then let it drop. "That's it," I said, sitting back down.

I noticed Ms Reina eyeing me suspiciously. It seemed like she was about to say something, then caught herself. I recalled her knowing Daxston’s name as well. I assumed she knew more than she let on. Otherwise, my turn had passed uneventfully. I was sure people would forget me by the end of the session.

The lavender-haired girl on my left stood up. “Kaede Tsukishi. I’m a 2-Star as well. I’m a plasma user, but I don’t have much control over it yet.” She raised her palm. A small purple ball of energy formed. Suddenly it exploded, sparks flying around her, startling the class. “Ah, sorry…” she muttered, hurriedly sitting back down. She covered her cheeks with her hands, which were turning red from embarrassment.

I stifled a giggle. Though I was amused by the incident, I considered her rank. Plasma or energy users like myself tended to rank rather highly. It was a rare case for one of us to only possess 2-Stars. Her visible lack of control over her Ability was an obvious explanation though. Still, the inner joker in me couldn’t resist the temptation to tease her.

Turning to her, I whispered. “That was a rather ‘shocking’ experience eh?”

“Shut up,” she glared at me. “You’re just a 2-Star as well, so don’t act like you’re better than me.”

“You’re right, sorry,” I jested. Kaede rolled her eyes.

“Daxston Gale” a voice boomed. “4-Stars.”

That certainly caught our attention. We both turned to face Daxston as he continued. “My Ability? Here, let me show you.”

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He strode to the front of the class as Ms Reina watched cautiously. He picked up one half of the broken door and held it against the palm of his other hand. A sharp blast of superheated air erupted from his palm, instantly disintegrating the door. Everyone gasped.

“No way… ” I heard Kaede mutter under her breath.

“That was sick bro!” Jonah aggressively whispered to me. “The door was there then, BAM!” he smashed his fist into his palm.

I nodded, turning back to Daxston. He triumphantly paraded back to his seat, relishing in the fear which now encompassed the room.

“Thank you for your, uh, display, Daxston,” Ms Reina coughed. “With that, that’s everyone here. Well, everyone that’s present today.” She glanced at one remaining empty seat, then at her tablet. “We still have one more friend that isn’t with us today, for personal reasons. His name is Kazen Rain. Please welcome him to the class when he shows up.” She continued. “It looks like we have some time left before your lunch, so I’ll leave you guys to mingle among yourselves. If anyone has further questions, I’ll be sitting right here at the teacher’s table.”

I watched a flurry of activity as my classmates started interacting with one another. Daxston closed his eyes as he laid back on his chair, apparently uninterested. As for me, I had already interacted with Jonah a fair amount, so I turned my attention back to Kaede, who was scrolling through her phone. Since we had already made contact, it would be easier to break the ice with her.

Jonah scooted over as I tried catching her attention. “Hey,” I waved. “Care to chat a bit?”

She looked over, unamused. “If you’re making fun of me again…”

Jonah butted in. “But it’s plasma! You have such a cool ability, for real. I’m sure if you practiced a bit more, you would make a formidable opponent.”

She pouted. “I know, but I don’t know why I can’t control it. I’ve been watching tutorials of fellow plasma users on the Net, and they make it seem so easy!”

I observed the pair of them. While Jonah and Kaede were ranked 1 and 2-Stars respectively, their abilities possessed immense potential. They just appeared to be rough around the edges. While I thought of the possibilities, Kaede broke my concentration.

“So how does your power work, Cadel?”

“Me? Well uh, I just make objects float.”

“I know, but is there like a limit? How high can you make it fly?” Kaede seemed genuinely interested.

“Let’s see.” I raised my arm and Kaede started floating. She looked at me in terror.

“Dude, what are you doing?! Put me down!” she hissed. Her arms, waving wildly in the air, glowed with purple light. “Put me down or I’ll shoot!” It was clear she was just bluffing though.

“Okay relax, don’t make a scene. You’re only a couple of centimeters off the ground.” Her entertaining reactions were encouraging me to continuously tease her. I proceeded to gently set her down.

Right as her feet touched the floor, however, there was a huge discharge of sparks as fine beams of plasma shot out of her fingertips. They showered around the classroom, as my classmates, having noticed the commotion, frantically ducked for cover.

“Ow! Who did that!” Daxston roared. He cupped his forehead, a singed black mark sizzling from where one of the beams hit him. He looked over in our direction.

“You!” He glared at Kaede. He aimed his palm at her. Kaede’s eyes widened.

“Daxston, stop!” Ms Reina shouted. She rushed for the Esper Nullifier and took aim at Daxston, but she was too slow.

With a yell, Daxston released a blast of air in her direction. Or at least tried to. All that happened was a loud pop. Daxston looked at his hand, confused. It was as if he had just shot into a black hole.

I felt a surge of energy in my system. Not adrenaline, but actual energy. I licked my lips. It wasn’t much, but that would do. I, of course, had absorbed the attack. Daxston tried firing again, but he couldn’t move at all this time. I was freezing him in place. My classmates were also rooted to the spot, but they were frozen in shock, not because they were having all their kinetic energy absorbed.

“That’s enough,” Ms Reina took charge, activating the Esper Nullifier again. With the weapon activated, I released my hold on Daxston. She proceeded to retrieve something from the teacher’s table and walked towards him.

She then forced his hands behind his back, handcuffing him. It looked ridiculous, a teacher handcuffing a student on the first day of school. The handcuff beeped. I assumed it worked similarly to the Nullifier. Once cuffed, she deactivated the Nullifier. “You’re coming with me,” she commanded Daxston. She then turned to us. “It’s almost lunchtime. You may leave when it’s time. Till then, the rest of you behave yourselves”.

“I’ll find out which one of you did that!” Daxston growled as he shuffled out of the classroom, with Ms Reina in tow.

Unfortunately, since I had absorbed the full force of Daxston’s earlier attack as soon as he had released it, I now had a bit of excess energy in my system. Holding it in would leave me light-headed after a while, so I needed an outlet. I decided to release it in a quick blast of cold air from the top of the room. My classmates shivered, confused.

“Wha-what just happened?” Jonah exclaimed.

I shrugged. “Beats me.” I looked at Kaede, who was trying to calm her trembling. “You okay?”

She nodded, putting on a brave face. “That was crazy,” she whispered.

I resisted the urge to pat her head. “Don’t worry, the school will do something about it,” I assured her.

She nodded again. “Sorry,” she said, apologising to no one in particular.

Jonah, ever the bundle of sunshine, clapped her shoulder. “Hey, it’s pretty much lunchtime now. Say we go scout the area for a bit?”

“It’s not time yet,” I noted.

“Eh, teacher’s not here anyway,” Jonah grinned.

Kaede smiled faintly, but she stood up. “Sure, let’s check it out.”

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Administration Notes

School: Waning Crescent Institute

Name: Kaede Tsukishi

Gender: Female

Year: First-year

Rank: 2-Star

Division: Combat

Ability: Can control and manipulate plasma, but she isn't very good at it. Her energy is unstable and prone to misfiring. Potential for improvement.

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