Two days later, Shinku slowly gained more control of his magic under Tatsuya’s guidance. He soon learned to mold the earth using his magic, although Shinku became increasingly agitated for still being in the early stages of his training.

“Ugh, this is moving so slowly. Is there any way to speed this up? The school year is about to start soon, and if I can’t do something as simple as keeping my own magic under control, then how can I compete against the other students in the school?”

Tatsuya smacked Shinku on the head out of frustration. “I’m tired of hearing you complain about the pace we’re going at. Don’t forget, in the practical exams, you nearly killed the kid you were fighting and almost destroyed the arena solely because you couldn’t contain your magic properly.”

Tatsuya then explained the dangers of letting his magic leak out. Without proper control, his magic could unintentionally affect his surroundings and hurt people accidentally.

As Shinku and Tatsuya continued training, Akira’s mother yelled at him for accidentally breaking a plate.

“Dammit, Akira! Ever since that day, it’s like you can’t stop messing things up. Why can’t you just stay focused and stop messing up my life!”

Akira went to pick up the broken glass as his mother continued to shout at him. As Akira picked up the shards of glass from the ground, he wept as the glass cut his hand, angering his mother even more.

“Stop crying! The pain you feel from that little cut is nowhere near the pain you’ve caused me and your father with your actions. Just stop it!”

Akira’s mother kicked him, knocking him down into the broken shards on the floor, and continued to shout at him for breaking the plate.

Akira lay on the floor as his mother continued to hurl insults. Suddenly, the wind began to blow violently, scaring his mother, before she was viciously blown into a wall using wind magic.

As she slowly got up off the floor, she saw Akira covered in his own blood with tears in his eyes, which angered her further.

“First, you get yourself arrested, leaving all the stress on me to take care of everything for you. And now you throw your own mother like that? Do you have any idea what you put me through day after day, wondering if cops are going to come by and arrest you? The side glances and all the people talking behind my back—do you have any idea—”

Akira cut her off mid-sentence, his voice filled with pain as he tried to wipe his tears. “I’m sorry. I know I messed up, but I am trying to do better, and all you do is hurt me and put me down. Every time I make a mistake, you throw it back in my face. Every time I feel like I’m moving forward and healing, you set me back and cause me more pain than anyone else. So much pain that it physically hurts, so much that I can’t stand it. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve come so close to killing myself? You have no idea how hard it is to fight the urge to end all my pain and all my suffering for good. The only reason I haven’t is because I know there are people who will miss me. My friends love me, and I can’t do that to them. But every day I come home, it becomes harder and harder not to just give up and give in because of you. I just—”

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As he was about to finish his statement, his father came into the house, fuming with rage from what he heard Akira say. As his father stormed into the house, Akira became frightened and ran past him out of the house too fast for his parents to catch him.

While Ryota was on standby at the police station, he suddenly got a report on a missing child, that child being Akira. His mother described a short, long-haired child covered in blood with a moon-shaped birthmark on his right hand.

While the police searched for Akira, Ryota called Tatsuya, filling him in on the situation. He was instructed to join them in the search, as they were also told that Akira had awakened his wind magic and that Tatsuya might be needed.

Tatsuya informed Shinku that they would have to cut their lesson short for the day. When questioned on the reasoning, he told Shinku about the situation with Akira, and Shinku begged to come with them. Tatsuya finally got away from Shinku as he aided in the efforts to find Akira.

The next day, Akira was finally found, still covered in his own blood and crying on the floor. As officers tried to come closer to him, the wind began to blow violently again, and Akira tried to plead with them.

“Don’t come near me. I don’t want to go back to that place again. Please, just leave me be.”

“Don’t worry, we just need to take you to the hospital for your injuries and have you checked to find out what happened to you, okay?”

“They’ll find me there. Please, just leave me alone!”

Akira dropped to the ground in tears as a wind barrier covered him, preventing the officers from getting to him without hurting him. The officers spent hours waiting for Akira’s magic to run low, causing him to pass out from magic exhaustion. They finally got his wounds treated and took him to the police station for questioning.

Akira finally came to after his injuries were taken care of. He cried, knowing that his parents would soon come to see him in the hospital. He grew worried as he was told he had a visitor, but his uneasiness was soon quelled as he was surprisingly welcomed by Shinku.

Earlier in the day, Shinku eavesdropped on Ryota’s phone calls, hoping to hear any news about Akira. Thankfully, he heard the name of the hospital where Akira was being treated and came to talk to him.

“Hi, Akira. My name is Shinku. It’s nice to meet you. Don’t worry, I’m not here to pry. I just heard about you, and I wanted to find out if you were alright, you know, one kid to another?”

Akira sheepishly looked back down, too scared to converse with Shinku, and tried his best to muster up the courage to speak.

Just as Akira finally felt able to respond Shinku, his parents stormed into his room, filled with rage after he ran away, leaving a blank yet fear-filled expression on Akira’s face.