I don’t exactly remember when the world first started noticing me. All I had started out as was a poor girl born into a family of Jays - people with weak Souls.
In this world, the strength of your Soul is everything. It defines your very existence.
If you were a Jay, you would be looked down on and heavily discriminated against. There’s a saying among Jays that says that simply being born as a Jay is more dangerous than fighting in a war as a Zed - someone with a strong Soul. And for the most part, that saying is 100% true. There are very few laws that protect Jays, and the few that do are very rarely followed.
Kidnapping, blackmail, robbery, assault and even murder are all extremely commonly done to Jays. And the most punishment that the perpetrator would receive would be a slight slap on the wrist before being completely let off. Life as a Jay is simply terrible.
But I’m not a Jay. Despite the fact that I was born into a family entirely composed of Jays, I myself have an extremely strong Soul. However, for the large majority of my life, I’ve still had to endure a lot of the same treatment and discrimination that Jays receive, due to my family. That was until I joined Fraycroft Peake.
Fraycroft Peake is a type of high-school that’s main focus is training its students in how to properly use their Souls - these are called Wave Facilities. The reason they’re called Wave Facilities is because Wave is the name of the invisible energy that gives power to our Souls.
There are three types of Wave Facilities - Green Wave Facilities, Yellow Wave Facilities, and Red Wave Facilities. Unfortunately, Fraycroft Peake is a Red Wave Facility, which means that its students are extremely weak compared to most other facilities. But it was a miracle that even a Red Wave Facility accepted me despite my family lineage.
And accepting me was probably the single best decision that Fraycroft Peake’s administration ever made.
The second I joined, I demonstrated practically unheard of prowess for someone who had never really been able to use their Soul before. Within less than a month, I had already joined Fraycroft Peake’s team of Saviours.
Saviours are students handpicked by the school to compete in inter-school competitions called Turf Wars. Turf Wars are competitions that allow the winning team’s school to rise up in the rankings of all the schools in the district, and even change their classification from Red Wave Facility to Yellow or Green. To put it simply, they’re a big deal.
And then, after I had joined, Fraycroft Peake finally started winning Turf Wars. Or it would be more accurate to say that I started winning it for them.
But I didn’t just win one. No, I began winning every single Turf War that Fraycroft Peake was challenged to.
It didn’t even take a year before we had advanced to a Green Wave Facility. And not just any Green Wave Facility, we were the second greatest Wave Facility in the entire world - only just behind Vaycloud High.
And even Vaycloud High wouldn’t remain above us for long. We had a Turf War against them planned for today.
…
Yeah… We were supposed to be fighting Vaycloud High right now, huh? Now, looking up into the pitch black sky at the frankly breathtaking, glowing white asteroid of God-knows-what heading towards Earth, all of that seemed so unimportant.
The end of the world… This was it. I wanted to do something, stop it somehow, but it simply seemed completely impossible. No, it didn’t seem impossible. It was impossible.
I may be strong, but I’m only human. Even if I poured every single ounce of strength that my body still contained into trying to stop it, I still wouldn’t succeed.
What the fuck was this thing? You might think it’s an ordinary meteor or something, but no. Normal meteors don’t glow brighter than the Sun itself.
Nothing made any sense.
Or, at the very least, I couldn’t hope to understand it.
I hated this feeling.
This feeling of being completely, utterly powerless.
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[7 Hours Earlier]
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I sat at my desk, elbows resting on the wood and my hands covering my ears. It was still just a bit before first period, so tons of groups were crammed into the room, chatting away. And let’s just say that the overabundance of noise wasn’t exactly the most relaxing thing to my head. I had never really dealt with noise all that well.
Plus, I didn’t have any room in my mind to pay any attention to that noise. After all, I had a Turf War against Vaycloud High today. I had to prepare to the very best of my ability.
Despite the fact that I’m the leader of the Saviours, I’ve never really been much of a quick-thinker - I always looked too deeply into the situation and overthought everything. So, to combat this, I always made sure to spend the week leading up to the Turf War to predict exactly what was going to happen during the competition to a near perfect degree. That way I could plan all of my decisions far in advance so that I could still act like I was an amazing quick-thinker.
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I had to. I was the leader and I needed to stay as the leader. And this was the only way to do that.
By the time I was knocked out of my trance-like state, everyone had gone to their seats as our teacher, Mr. Acantha, had entered the room.
I had always thought that he was quite a kind-looking person; olive skin, short light-brown hair with a bit of a fringe, blue eyes, and a thin-framed pair of glasses that rested on his nose. If I had to guess, I’d say he was probably only in his early 20’s, but I had never actually asked.
He cheerfully greeted the class, as he always did. Obviously, the response the class had always given back never matched even 1% of that enthusiasm, but even still, his overwhelming enthusiasm and joy never wavered even slightly.
After his greeting, he began taking attendance, following the regular routine. As he read through it, my mind began drifting back to my plan for Turf Wars, until a few names caught my attention.
“Zayne Khólos?” Mr. Acantha read out, slightly exasperatedly.
What surprised me wasn’t actually the name itself, but instead the fact that someone replied.
“Yeah, yeah. Here, sir.” Yawned a medium-toned voice from the back row.
I turned my head in the direction that the voice came from and was surprised to find that the voice’s possessor was, in fact, Zayne Khólos.
He sat in the middle of the back row, leaning back against his chair’s backrest, hands up behind his head. It had been practically the whole school year since I had last seen him, yet he hadn’t changed at all - fairly tall (maybe about 6’0), extremely well-built, tanned skin, very short brown hair, and green eyes.
You might be wondering why I was so surprised just to see him, but I promise I’m not crazy.
“Wow, I see you’re finally in! I can’t quite seem to remember, is this the second or the third time that you’ve attended class?” Quipped Mr. Acantha, clearly just as surprised as the rest of the class.
“Uhhh… I think it’s actually the fifth.” Responded Zayne, trying to make the class laugh.
There were a few mild chuckles, but it was ultimately a complete failure.
Mr. Acantha moved on with attendance, while I was still slightly dumbfounded at the fact that Zayne had actually attended. Although, if there was any week for him to return, I suppose the last week of the school year would make sense.
I managed to just slightly overcome my shock, due to remembering just what type of person Zayne was. Usually, I would be ecstatic to see him back, as he’s actually a Zed, like me. I believe his Soul allows him to gain extreme super-strength and super-speed - a bit basic, but still quite powerful depending on the level of strength and speed. So, he could majorly help in boosting the school’s reputation. But, Zayne just isn’t that kind of person. Instead of using his influence as a Zed to help grow the environment around him, he simply used it to goof off and get away with practically everything.
It was people like him who I hated most in this world.
But, my attention was drawn away from him, when I heard a different name being called.
“Terass Everdeene?” Called Mr. Acantha, his spirits much higher than when he called for Zayne.
“Here, sir!” Called the high-voiced girl from the second row up on the opposite side of the room to me.
Terass was probably the single most popular person in the entire school, if you don’t include us Saviours. She was kind, caring, and never stood for injustice, even against Jays. Take into account the fact that she herself was actually a Zed, and that’s pretty impressive. I think her Soul had something to do with fire or heat manipulation, but I truthfully didn’t actually remember all too well.
She was also popular for her looks, something that nearly every boy in our year and beyond had fallen for. She was extremely beautiful after all; tan skin, a slim physique, bright red hair tied into pigtails, and red eyes.
But, I wasn’t drawn out of my shock about Zayne just because of her. No, not at all.
It’s actually because hearing her name reminded me of her best friend, the boy who sits just one row behind her, in the bottom left corner of the classroom. The one person who I hate even more than people like Zayne.
Mr. Acantha hesitated slightly before calling out the next name in the register. “… Atlas Raylix?”
The boy in the bottom right corner just barely lifted his head slightly from its position in the middle of his folded arms on his desk, managing to muffle a very deep “Here, sir…”, before plopping his head straight back into his arms.
Atlas Raylix - someone born into the very prestigious Raylix family, which has pumped out Zeds for years. His older brother, Theos Raylix, is widely considered to be the strongest person to ever walk this Earth. Not only is Theos Raylix the strongest, but, through the few conversations I’ve had with him due to being the single student that put Fraycroft Peake on the map, I’ve discerned that he’s also a very kind and noble person.
However, Atlas seems to have not received either of those genes.
Atlas Raylix is the one and only person on this planet born without any Soul. Somehow, he apparently just never awoke one.
Due to this, he’s relentlessly bullied everywhere he goes. In fact, I’m 99% sure that the only reason he hasn’t been murdered yet is because he is a Raylix. Even if his family have practically disowned him, I doubt that they’d allow anyone who dares murder him to get off easy, or else their family might lose some of its prestige.
However, him not having a Soul isn’t something that I’d dislike him for, unlike some others. What I dislike about him is his lack of any kindness or basic manners.
I’ve saved him from some pretty serious instances of bullying a few times, and each time, he’s never so much as thanked me or even looked me in the eye. It’s as if everything that happens around him is just a mild inconvenience in his eyes - as if he’s simply so superior to everyone else that things like that just don’t bother him.
It’s that attitude that I hated most of all - that sickening superiority he seemed to feel. It’s not like I thought he was inferior or anything, but just the fact that he still seemed to feel superior to everyone else despite the fact that he was in a classroom surrounded by people who had worked their asses off their whole lives just to get this far really annoyed me.
I honestly couldn’t understand how Terass tolerated him, let alone enjoyed being around him.
Finally, Mr. Acantha reached my name on the register. “Irene Nashley?”
“Here, sir.” I responded, sitting up slightly.
“Alright, you’re allowed to go now. Just make sure to win this Turf War for us, yeah?” He asked, a smile on his face.
“Of course, sir.”
This was a perk of being a Saviour - on weeks where Turf Wars were planned, you were allowed to skip all of your lessons in order to train at the school’s training grounds.
I picked up my bag, before standing and walking out of the class. As I was leaving, I looked back towards Atlas one last time. I didn’t quite know why, I guess I just wanted to check one last time if the bullying had started yet.
As I did, I noticed something that shocked me slightly. Everything about his appearance was the exact same as it should’ve been; lean physique, extremely tall (about 6’3 if I had to guess), pale skin, short mostly blonde hair with a completely black fringe (a natural dual hair colour unique to the Raylix family), and blue eyes with noticeable bags beneath them. However, he seemed to be whispering something to Terass. I wasn’t the best at lip-reading, but if I was correct, he was whispering “It’s today.”
I turned away from the classroom after exiting and went on my way to the training grounds, trying to just tell myself that I was imagining it, but for some reason, it just wouldn’t leave my mind.
And I had absolutely no idea why.