“Kez, why’re you so bashful in here? What are you, a little girl, even my little sister wouldn’t be this nervous.” Gareth taunted as he changed out of his gym uniform in front of every other guy in the locker room. Kezner leaned against the wall next to him, looking away, as he continued to wait for the bathroom to change out of his gym uniform.

The left end of Kezner’s lips twitched up into a helpless expression, “How would you feel if a bunch of dudes were stripping around you?”

“What do you mean ‘what if’, it’s happening right now and I don’t feel anything, I honestly don’t see how you can be embarrassed. Look, even Britt is changing in front of us, nothing to be ashamed of, man.” Gareth had pointed to the short and slightly overweight Britt. Britt felt a pair of eyes on him and trembled before subtly and slowly covering his overweight chest to hide his man boobs in embarrassment.

It was Gareth’s turn for his lips to twitch, however it was in amusement, while Kezner reverted to his deadpan face again.

A half-dressed Bryan walked up to them as he had overheard their conversation, “Yeah, Kezner, there’s nothing to be afraid of, we’re all friends here, right?”

Suddenly, a bad feeling slapped Kezner across the face, as he saw that the rest of the guys were surrounding them with encouraging gazes and cheers. Although they weren’t all well acquainted with Kezner, some of them were his team members, while others held respect and reverence for him, everyone looked up to the strong. Though a few wanted to hug his thigh, others truly wanted to befriend him, they could all see he had some social problems so they couldn’t pierce the veil of initiating with him properly.

With Gareth’s encouraging smile, and the pressure from the five other guys, Kezner chose the most obvious decision… and that was to bang the bathroom door to get in. However, he was met with a morbidly obese janitor clutching his stomach as he stumbled out of it, with the stench of the toilet wafting throughout the entire locker room. The janitor then opened the closet next to the bathroom and took out a sign reading “Out of Order”, and then locking the bathroom door.

Everyone was speechless at this turn of events and now it was their turn to have their lips twitch in amusement. Kezner felt his heart drop, as he had no choice but to change in front of them, his nervousness was through the roof yet he didn’t show any of it.

Gulping, he quickly realized that he wasn't even wearing an undershirt today as he had gotten too complacent about waking up earlier than usual that he accidentally didn’t dress up properly. It wasn’t until he was on the bus this morning that he realized but didn’t think much of it.

He couldn’t run away, his body was frozen, he couldn’t think as his own thoughts were tripping on themselves, he could only act due to peer pressure and slowly lifted his shirt as the cheers and encouragement got louder as if he was some stripper. However, after Kezner fully took off his shirt and loosened his shoulders, they all paused and felt a tingling sensation from their feet to their balls, it was an abhorred sight.

His body was slim yet broad as he had looked like he had potential to get large with muscle. The pale white skin on his body was riddled with large lacerated scars and burn marks, however they only reached from right under his neck to his abdomen, so you couldn’t see them with a shirt on.

These scars were almost bone deep as they were slightly faded but you could still make out every detail on them. Some of these scars looked like they were from blades and sharp edges, while most of them came from what seemed to be whip lashes. The large burn marks seemed to go up and down his spine in a zig-zag pattern. For kids born in crappy apartment buildings, they could easily tell that the pattern resembled the common radiators they had in their rooms. The worst part about these burn marks on his back was that it wasn’t a single set, there were multiple and overlapping zig-zagged patterns all over his entire back.

Gareth’s eyes widened for a second as he quickly looked away. He understood why Kezner was so apprehensive about his body, anyone would in this situation. As for the other five, they took a step back as they also diverted their gazes in guilt, however, the ignorant were innocent, they only knew he was an orphan, they didn’t know things got this bad, they knew nothing about him.

The morbidly obese janitor, on the other hand, was suddenly confused as to why the loud cheers behind him stopped, looking back, he quickly looked away only to do a double-take with widened eyes and ran towards the gym.

A few seconds later, Mr. Flanigan walked into the locker room with his hands held behind his back and gently strolled in there as if it was his own backyard, alongside him was the obese janitor. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to be able to see or hear them, as if they were phantoms. However Mr. Flanigans’ steps came to an abrupt stop as his gaze darkened into pure rage when he saw the marks and scars on Kezner’s body. On the other hand, the janitor simply gulped and let out a melancholic sigh.

Mr. Flanigan had read reports of abuse in Kezner’s report and only minor injuries in his medical history, but this… this was too far. He was an orphan himself, but his childhood could be considered somewhat blissful and had never experienced anything as severe as what Kezner had, however, he knew one other boy that did, but couldn’t bear to recall him as he clenched his fists. He and the janitor then made their way out of the locker room as his face regained its stern yet calm expression, however, his eyes were muddled with a reminiscing tone.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Everyone stayed silent as they couldn’t help but continue to peak at the scars once more as Kezner hurriedly put on his normal uniform. He didn’t enjoy putting his body out there like that but now that they had seen it, he felt embarrassed. However, he also noticed the strange and still cold silence in the locker room as he felt gazes of guilt and pity. Raising his head as he finished buttoning the black button-down shirt, he looked at the other guys and only gave a confused, “Huh?”

Gareth patted Kezner’s shoulder as he made his way to the cafeteria, and slowly, everyone else trickled out, leaving Kezner alone after he put on his normal uniform. With a sigh, he took his bag, and went to the cafeteria as well.

---NCHS - Cafeteria---

Pulling out his Grandmaster’s guide, Kezner read through it as usual. Everyone else in that portion of the cafeteria sat in dead silence as they were barely able to eat. The six boys that had seen the scars and burns on Kezner’s body were in no mood to eat, not only did the wounds seem despicable and vulgar, it brought out a form of pity that ate them from inside out.

As for the seven girls, they quickly learned of what was seen in the locker room, but were still curious as they hadn’t seen it for themselves. That was simply how the mind of man waned, not believing until seeing, no trust until feeling the disgust. However, though they didn’t see it, the boys’ dreadful booming silence silenced them as well.

The ignorant Kezner continued to read, until he came across something interesting in his Grandmaster’s guide that made him think, causing him to put down the book and stare into the wall in utter silence. One of the theories and beliefs proposed in forging was that if you were to engrave a forged weapon with lines that acted similar to Energy Routes, given enough time, a weapon could achieve spirituality. Meaning that you could make a weapon that would think for itself, while relying on its owner to activate its lifespan. The main problem was that this spirituality would take a long time, thousands of years even, as it would automatically attempt to use its “Energy Routes” and absorb Natural Energy to create a special kind of energy that could affect one’s thoughts and mentality.

Reading up to that part, Kezner recalled his own Spirit Energy. Actually, he came up with the name “Spirit Energy” for that exact reason, it could affect someone’s thoughts and emotions, even read others’ intentions in certain situations, he didn’t want to call it “Mental Energy” that would just seem boring and bland, so he went on a whim and called it “Spirit Energy” and the rest was history. Even though its usage could easily be used, Kezner hadn’t really found out about its uses until a few months ago by accident. It didn’t really matter anyways as he had nobody to use it on, and didn’t really dare to mess with another person’s thinking.

Thinking up to here, he was now lost, how would he engrave lines that resembled the usage of Energy Routes onto a weapon, how would it look like, were there any other steps or would it work on its own? With these questions in his mind, Kezner realized how little he truly knew about such an immense subject as this.

Letting a deep breath out of his nose, he slowly frowned as he looked at how little he read through the guide, not even a tenth of it had been read, yet he was already stumped. It should be said that so far, he had understood and managed to implement some of this theoretical knowledge in his halberd, meaning he had comprehended and was able to play out these new and unique methods. He had only scraped the tip of the iceberg.

---

Walking back into the homeroom, Kezner had a strange expression on his face as he looked at Mr. Bancroft while he touched his shoulder. There should have been a cut in his blazer and shirt, but his clothing would stitch itself back together as if it was alive. This was one reason that the school uniform was so damn expensive, but they were still overcharging the students for it.

Mr. Bancroft, the perpetrator of this offense, was currently sitting down on the teacher’s desk and only gave his usual amiable smile and a gentle nod as his eyes were closed into curves. Kezner could only put his head down, walk to his desk, and silently curse this asshole. “So you stab someone and then proceed to teach their class the next day like nothing happened? Pray I never get stronger than you, you old bastard.”

“Hey class, listen up.” Mr. Bancroft addressed the class as the classroom quieted down. “By tomorrow, the Governor should be testifying her case in front of the Sector Judges. Today, I don’t want to teach an actual class, but I want to see your opinions on whether she should be impeached or not, and why. So if you believe she shouldn’t be impeached, please stand up.”

Everyone except Kezner stood up, and when they were picked, they gave simple reasons like, “She’s done a lot of good.” or “The changes she made are very productive and helped my family a lot!”

“Now if you believe she should be impeached, please stand up.” Mr. Bancroft then addressed the last person in the class that everyone had ignored as they thought about their answers.

And with that, Kezner stood up and gave his answer, “I don’t like her.”

Everyone was speechless to his answer, as they gave him a few strange gazes. “My dear friend, if people were impeached because you didn’t like them then what kind of world would we live in?”

Mr. Bancroft was truly curious as he questioned, “Oh? Why not?”

“I met her the other day, she acted like a brat.” Kezner’s answer just made everyone’s strange gaze deeper. They had a hard time believing him, could just anyone meet the Governor these days?

Even Mr. Bancroft was slightly speechless to Kezner’s one sentence answers, couldn’t he even explain himself a little? If a fake story was supposed to be made up of meat, then Kezner’s was made up of skinny bare bones. “Kezner, couldn’t you explain any further? What do you mean she acted like a brat?”

“Oh, she came into the shop to pick up a few swords on Sunday, we worked on it all morning. She then made me deliver the swords to a ship the size of a large bus, and invited me inside. There were a bunch of soldiers and stuff, and she finally was talking about hiring me or something. I honestly didn’t care enough to pay attention. After that, I left.” Kezner intentionally left some parts out of it, like Governor Vanya being a princess and that she had looked up his information. Lord knew how many different ways he would die if that information were to be leaked.

Midway through, Mr. Bancroft paused as sweat trickled down his forehead as he realized something… Kezner wasn’t lying.