On an early morning, and John’s father was teaching John how to fight with a wooden sword. The two traded blows, “Keep your arms up!” his father instructed as they practiced. John swung as hard as he could as his father blocked every blow with ease, John then tried to perform a stabbing attack on his father, but right before the tip of sword made contact with his father’s belly, his father turned to his side and hit John in the back just below the neck with the handle of his sword, causing John to fall to the ground.

“You should never go for a stab like that.” John’s father said with a laugh.

“Easy for you to say, you’re older and stronger than me.” John said, standing up.

“That may be true, Son” his father replied. “But one day, you’ll be the stronger one; I’m just giving you lessons on how to beat me.”

“Beating me more like.”

His father laughed and put his hand on John’s shoulder, “Son,” he said. “One day you will thank me for these lessons. One day you will have to use these skills that I taught you to protect yourself and those less fortunate enough to defend themselves, you might even have a family of your own one day so you better protect them with your life.”

“But what if I don’t have a family of my own?” John asked.

“Then you protect those that do have families. It’s not for me to know whether or not you’ll have a family, just focus on your future, and you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, Dad.” John said, looking up at his father’s face.

John’s mother then walked out of the house, “That’s enough sword-swinging for today, I’ve got breakfast ready.” she called out to them.

“Alright, let’s go eat.” John’s father said.

John and his father both entered the house and enjoyed a large meal. After the meal, John’s mother told him to go outside and try to make friends instead of spending the whole day inside studying. John agreed and left the house, taking the book he was learning magic from with him.

John walked down the road, thinking about what his mother said about making friends, “I was never really good at making friends in my other life, the only person I’ve been able to be friends with was Yuki.” He said as he walked, he stopped next to a small hill near the road where he heard laughter of children coming from the other side of the hill.

John then slowly walked up the hill, crawling on the ground as he got to the top. He looked down at where the laughter was coming from and he saw four other kids around the same age as him (one of them being a few years older than John) bullying a smaller child that was crouched on the ground, covering his head because the bullies were kicking him. John pondered about what he should do, “Should I help him, I don’t even know this kid.” he thought to himself. But he knew that he didn’t have time to think about it for too long, so he decided to help.

He got up and dashed down the hill and when he got close to the bullies, he threw his fist into the closest one, knocking him to the ground.

The three other bullies backed a little ways away as John got behind the kid they were bullying, telling them to stay back. The bully that John knocked to the ground quickly got up at charged at John, his fist ready to throw. John quickly dodged the bully’s fist and landed a second blow to his face, the bully quickly recovered and threw another punch, this time hitting John’s left shoulder. The bully then tricked John by letting his guard down and just as John landed a blow on him, he dodged to the side and kicked John in the belly, causing him to fall to the ground. The bully then attempted to land a hard blow to the back of John’s head, but right as his fist was centimeters from delivering the strike, John casted a force spell, sending the bully into the air and landing a little ways away from the scene.

Seeing that the bully wasn’t getting up, the other bullies ran in fear with one of them dragging the one that John sent flying with them as they ran. But one of the bullies seemingly changed his mind about running away, and charged at John who was still recovering from the kick he received. The bully was about to strike John, but then he noticed something about John; his eyes were glowing a bright orange color which filled the boy to be more afraid than when he witnessed his friend getting blasted into the air, causing him to flee full sprint in the opposite direction of where the other bullies were going, panicking as he ran as if he had just seen a ghost.

John was confused by what just happened, but he quickly brushed it off and went to check on the kid that the bullies were picking on. The kid was still crouched on the ground, cowering under a navy blue colored hood. John helped the kid up, “I hope he’s alright.” John said to himself. “I wonder why those kids were beating on him.”

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The kid then turned to John and took of his hood, revealing the face of a fair skinned girl with long, dark blue hair and bright green eyes. Her face had an innocent look mixed in with fear filling in her eyes; she also seemed to be a year younger than John and shorter than him, her height only reaching up to his shoulders.

“Are you ok?” John asked.

“I – I’m fine.” the girl said still trembling, her voice having the soft cuteness of a frightened kitten.

“It’s alright; I’m not here to hurt you.” John assured.

John then pulled a handkerchief out of his pants pocket and handed it to her, Here, your cheek is bleeding.” he said. The girl took the handkerchief and pressed it against her left cheek.

“Do you live around here?” John asked.

“Yes,” she answered, pointing towards a house just outside of the town. “I live there with my dad.”

“Let me take you back home.” John offered.

“But my father isn’t home.” she replied.

“Where is your father?”

“He went to go work; he won’t be back until night.”

“Man, poor girl,” John said in his mind. “She’s all alone; I know what that feels like.” “What’s your name?”

“Aoi.”

“Nice to meet you, Aoi; I’m John.”

“Thank you for saving me, John.” she said, handing the handkerchief back to him.

“Hey, why were those guys beating you, anyways?”

“Because I’m half-human, they saw my hair and called me a ‘filthy half-breed’ and started to chase me and pin me to the ground.”

“Oh come on,” John said annoyingly in his head. “Racism is a thing in this world as well.” “What’s your other race?”

“I’m not sure, my father is human and my mother was something else, but she died shortly after I was born. My father would never tell me what race my mother was.”

“But you look fully human to me.”

“It’s my eyes; no one around here has my eye or hair color, not even my father.”

“I see; I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s ok, not everyone in this place is mean to me, like you.”

“Thanks, you wanna just walk around a bit.”

“Sure!” Aoi said happily with a bright smile.

“Oh, just a moment, I need to go grab my book.” John said, dashing up the hill picking up his book as soon as he reached the top.

He then ran back down the hill and after reuniting with Aoi, the two proceeded to walk along the road. The two talked about a lot of things; they talked about their favorite things, about their families, John told her about how he learned magic and that when he got older, he wants to see the world. Aoi had no idea what she wanted to do with her life, but she didn’t linger on those thoughts for too long instead, she wanted John to teach her magic.

“You really want to learn magic?” John asked.

“Yeah, it would make protecting myself from those bullies easier.”

“Well, alright.”

The two walked to a small hill with a large tree firmly standing on the top of it. They both sat down under the tree, the sun just starting to set behind them; John opened the first chapter of the book and instructed Aoi how to do the first spell that he learned. Aoi then attempted to cast the spell. She stretched out her right arm and raised her hand with her palm facing in the direction she was looking. She concentrated and after a few seconds, she shot a small blast of air from the palm of her hand.

“I did it!” Aoi exclaimed, jumping in the air.

“Wow! That was amazing.” John said, impressed by Aoi.

“Thank you so much for teaching me this, John.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Can you teach me another one?”

John was about to say yes, but then he noticed the sun was almost down, “Oh no, I got to get back home.” he said jumping to his feet. John then walked with Aoi back to her home and after she arrived at her house, John headed back to his house. By the time John got back to the house, it was already dark and waiting in front of the house door was his father with his arms crossed and a serious look on his face.

“Where have you been?” he asked.

“I was near the town.” John answered.

“Doing what?”

“Well, I was walking around when I saw these guys ganging up on someone, so I broke it up and helped the kid they were bullying.”

“Oh really? That’s not what I heard. I heard from a mother that says you hurt her son with magic by throwing him into the air… What were you thinking, do you have any idea how dangerous magic is; you could’ve killed him.”

“But Dad…”

“Don’t ‘but’ me. You can’t just pick fights with random people like that.”

“Did you even hear what I said?” John asked. “Those boys were beating up a girl for being a half-human; I saved her, that bully deserved what I gave him. I thought you said to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Should I have walked away instead and let her suffer?”

John’s father was speechless for a moment, knowing that he didn’t get to hear his son’s side of the story. He then kneeled down in front of John and placed his hand on his shoulder and said, “John, I’m sorry; I should’ve heard you out. I just didn’t want to hear that you’ve become someone I’d be disappointed in. I don’t want to fail as a father.”

“How can I be a disappointment when I have you for a father?” John replied.

“Thanks, Son.” John’s father said with a laugh, giving John a hug. “Who’s the girl you saved, anyways?”

“Her name is Aoi, and she’s a very good friend.”

“That’s good; it’s always good to have friends.”

John‘ s father stood up and both he and John headed back inside the house for dinner.

Weeks pass: thanks to Aoi, John had someone to spend his time with, John taught Aoi everything he knew about magic and how to use it, the two went around the flatland, playing, and just enjoying each other’s company. When at home, John did fantasize once about her one day becoming his girlfriend, but he quickly brushed that off and vowed to do something with his new life before settling down with someone.