“I wish we could burn down this school, straight to ashes, then burn those ashes to form even more ashes. Otherwise called, burned squared.”

The boy, or for our sake, our protagonist, is quite different from the normal person. He had messy hair that moved downwards from different angles that were pure white in colour. His eyes were covered by nice black round sunglasses that hid his bright golden eyes and was typically a stylistic choice that he made as well as tanned skin.

Kjinnlooked at his test paper sheet, it was pitiful. His eyes squandered around the paper as it was filled with red crosses and circles to highlight his mistakes. And on the top of his page, a simple number, 13. Now, depending on the context, it couldn’t be that bad, a 13 out of 20 isn’t too bad, and a 13 out of 15 is even better. But, this was a 13 out of a 100, so it was that bad.

Bonk

A blunt hit was struck on the back of his head, as Lisbeth rolled up her own test paper and did so, though it was a light-friendly hit that didn’t really do much. She then arrived shortly to her seat which is in front of Kjinn's. Her pose seemed elegant and apathetic, facing forward whilst having her hands to her thighs in a form of respect. She was always like this, always so proper and quiet during school time.

“What did you get?” She asked, refraining from showing an extreme emotion and still keeping her eyes forward whilst speaking to Kjinn.

“Uhhhh...A thirteen...” He finally replied, readying himself from getting a lecture of a lifetime from her. It always happened, he would get a bad score on a test, she would always lecture him about spending more time studying instead of messing around and then rinse and repeat. But instead, there was nothing visible that he could see coming from Lisbeth, just a simple sigh.

“Well, at least it’s better than your normal scores, you normally only get single digits...it shows some sign of improvement. At least something is going into your brain during our tutoring sessions” She replied, finally turning around towards him and giving him a smile, though then immediately hitting him again with her rolled-up test paper. Despite all that, his eyes gleamed and sparkled at the compliment, which made Lisbeth quickly blush and turn back around to her desk, crossing her arms.

“But that’s not an excuse to slack off! You’ve got to improve so that they could let you into the Hero Introductory Course.” She huffed.

He then remembered the whole reason that he was doing all those late-night tutoring sessions to attempt to improve. All that lost time where he could be having fun and actually doing something worthwhile in his eyes.

But, this was his first step. His dream that he had ever since he first heard of it. The idea of becoming a superhero! A hero that saved many and looked cool in the process, the one that saved others and enforced justice throughout the universe!

Kjinn had always been a boy that had been heavy on justice, the idea of fair equality throughout everywhere in the universe, and to save others that needed help. But another idea that always came to his head was to explore the universe, and as a hero, you can do that as a part of the service.

A hero could do anything, that was what the picture that Kjinn had of them, and they had the most impact out of everyone. And the top of all them, the one that stands above them all, is the Hero King.

“One day, I’ll be the Hero King, and then no one will think I’m stupid again!” He murmured to himself, catching the ear of Lisbeth once again.

“Say whatever you want, I’m going to be the next Hero King...they’ll have to change it to Hero Queen though.” She replied to him, they both had the same goal. Ever since they met each other they both wanted to be the same thing: A Hero. That’s why she studies harder and harder, more than anyone else. And also takes Kendo practices every day after school. Kjinn didn’t even need to know her test score, it was always the same, always 100%.

The bell faintly was heard, as the signal for going to the next class had begun. Lisbeth quickly got up, placing her satchel to her shoulder, and then looked back down at Kjinn, who was still reaching to get his backpack for the next period.

“I don’t have Kendo practice today, we can walk back home together after school.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you in front of the school!” He exclaimed, catching the eye of some classmates, which immediately made Lisbeth red as she looked to see all their reactions.

“You don’t have to be so excited about it.” She sighed, then gave him a wave as she moved off to her class, and Kjinn smiled back at her and went off to his own class.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The sunsetted down the school, as the students slowly edged out of school, conversing among themselves as they walked home. There was only one public transportation around the place, for this was the only village called Hosu, one of the many small villages littered around the United States of Japan, where Japan and Western Culture merged into one mega culture.

Hosu was simply a village with a few residents, big enough that not everyone knew each other, but not big enough for large transportation. The only transportation provided is a train to the closest city of Kento, but others transports are simply cars and bicycles. Kjinn had neither of those, so he stuck with walking.

He leaned back into the wall, his student uniform was much messier than his classmates, not ironed out and without a tie with an unbuttoned collar. It was just simply more comfortable for him to wear that. He sucked onto a juice box, waiting for Lisbeth to come outside and finally catching her from the corner of his eye, wearing her satchel and having her kendo sword by her shoulder.

“Yo! I’m here.” He said from afar, waving at her as she silently walked calmly towards him. They then started to walk beside each other, Kjinn holding his bag and bringing it behind him whilst leaving his other hand in his pocket. From a distance, a group of girls start conversing with each other.

“Oh, it’s Kjinn and Lisbeth, walking home from school.” One girl spoke up whilst they all observed them walk together.

“Isn’t it a bit odd, the worst student in the school is best friends with the honored girl that never gets below 100 in every test?” She wondered aloud, the other girls nodded in agreement. Another girl then chipped into the conversation, she had a more impish look to her, chuckling slightly.

“Heh, I heard they both want to become heroes, yet they don’t have an X-trait that gives them powers. They’re going for a death wish.” She snickered deviously at them, hoping they didn’t hear.

Then suddenly, they felt an uneasy aura as they realized that Lisbeth had heard them, shooting off an intimidating stare that shocks the group of girls. One of the girls drips into the mud from the sheer shock, for she has it due to her X-trait powers. They then scatter off.

Kjinn glimpsed at the end of what happened, and then sighed, he caught some of the words that the girls spoke. But he didn’t really want to pay notice to it at all, unlike Lisbeth.

“You would think people wouldn’t be stupid enough to talk trash about you from that close.” He remarked, garnering a quizzical look from Lisbeth.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re probably the scariest student in this village, even some adults are scared of talking to you. You have an intimidating aura.” He pointed out bluntly before relighting his expression.

“Ohhhh, the new issue of Wizard Duel is out today, Miss Lockhart probably already bought the copy for me!” He said with stars in his eyes, a wave of excitement brimming over him as he made this realization.

“I can’t believe you still make her do that, she’s in her 40s, you can’t make her do all that!” Lisbeth exclaimed, hitting him on the head with her kendo sword, producing a bonk noise.

“Ayayayaya,” He said as a bump emerged on the top of his head, covering it with his hands. He then looked back at her, not really taking too much pain from it.

“Hey, Miss Lockhart loves to do it, she explicitly tells me to tell her when they come out so that she can buy it for me, it’s not my fault!” He replies, still rubbing on the bump that was given to him by Lisbeth.

Miss Lockhart was someone very close to both of their lives, for she was their caretaker in the orphanage. The village was small enough to only have one orphanage, and within that orphanage were just two: Lisbeth and Kjinn. They spent all their lives there, met there, became best friends there. For them, it was their life.

The village itself was cozy, yet spread apart from farming by the coastal area of USJ, or the United States of Japan. Living by the coast also gave Hosu a natural salt in the air from the sea, yet provided Hosu with a great amount of fishing. With architecture replicating classic Japanese buildings, with a shrine near the hill depicting a statue of Buddha, watching over the village with his presence. By far, this village was not as technologically grand as others.

Kjinn and Lisbeth soon come to a crossing between two roads, waiting for the vehicles to pass by, which were only a few to come either way so it shouldn’t be that long for a wait. He noticed the girl with her mom, holding an action figure and playing with it whilst holding her mom's hand with her other hand.

“We only have a couple of months left, then we could head to the big cities and become heroes. Then I can finally get some cool-looking shoes.” He says out of nowhere, looking down at his feet to see his drab-looking all-black school shoes provided by Miss Lockhart, worse for wear after the many years wearing them.

“Only if you get your grades up for the final exams, otherwise you’re going to have to work as another fisherman, which would be a fine job for the future Hero King.” She sarcastically remarked back at him, in which he gave back a mean look. His shades gave a little shine as he changed angles.

“Haha, very fun-” He stopped abruptly as he heard a harrowing horn coming from the road, as what looked to be an out of control truck started ravaging the road going full speed past this road, the truck continued moving forward and started swerving rapidly until finally toppling and rolling towards them in their road.

But instead, aiming to roll into the road across from them, Kjinn looked at the other side of the road as the mom and child looked in horror, frozen in fear. Kjinn's own legs were shaking as everything seemed to be in slow motion for him, he knew he had to do something.

Despite everything, he knew that he had fear, fear that if he did something, he would suffer as well. But that fear came with an unrelenting determination that destroyed the feeling of fear tenfold assuring himself. His eyes looked on as he leaped from his shoes, his bag falling onto the ground as he ran towards them. The truck was coming a few meters in front of them.

All his focus went onto them, not himself anymore. For everything now, he had to save them for their safety. For that is what it was to be a hero. He leaped from his feet and came to the front of them as he tried to shield them from the truck. He couldn’t make it, he couldn’t make it away from the truck in time. If only he had some sort of speed power, or super durability, or anything that could save them. Was that all for him? Was that all for this trait-less boy? He closed his eyes, for what he thinks is his last time as he accepts his fate.

.

.

.

“Heh”

A snicker echoed through his mind, and he opened seeing nothing but darkness all around him, was this what death was like? He was on his knees as he looked at his hands, his body was glowing white, and despite the ground being pure black as the rest of this mindscape is.

Then, in the air in front of him, was a massive smile...a devious smile that was the source of the noise, as it spoke up.

“Finally, you’re awake.”