A normal guy

Each step sensei Martha took echoed slightly in the room. She observed attentively as each first-year student took their seat in the classroom. There were about forty brand-new Junior Engineers in that specific classroom. Jack looked around to see if he could find any familiar face, but he had no luck.

"Good morning, students," Martha greeted her students with an energized tone in her voice. "Welcome to Class Red-1 of the Central Dojo." Some murmur could be heard among the confused students, as they wondered why that was the name of their class.

Martha pressed a button on her desk, making an alphagram with a graphic of the different classes in the dojo appear out of thin air. "As you know, each Dojo divides its Junior Engineers into seven different classes, each one representing one of the colors of the rainbow. You're Class Red. The number 1 represents the year you're in."

The baffled expression on the students disappeared slightly as they paid attention to their master's explanation.

"For the next three years, you'll be training your body, soul, and mind in order to become Senior Engineers," she continued. "I hope you all are ready, as this path can get quite hard. But if there's a reason why you all are here it's because you have all an Engineer needs to be. So don't be afraid and give all you have within yourselves!"

After the discourse, the bell rang, marking the beginning of a small break before the first class of the day. Jack was sitting in the third row of the rightmost column of desks. As his eyes wandered, he noticed an empty desk to his left, one row in front of him. Who was its owner? Well, his question was answered quite quickly as the orange-haired girl he saw early in the morning sat in said position.

"It's her again... I wonder if I should talk to her." He thought to himself.

As he was about to stand up to greet the enigmatic woman, he felt a hand slapping him slightly on the shoulder.

"Hi!" The voice of the hand's owner addressed him almost immediately. Jack turned to see their face. It was a young, black-haired man, slightly the same height as him. His white face and hazel eyes looked more like that of an actor or model, rather than a warrior. "You're Jack Kennedy, right? My name is Michael Saint-John, but you can call me Mike if you feel like it.""Y-yeah, but how do you know my name?"

Michael pointed out to the wall in front of them, a poster with a photo of the winners of the Trainee Tournament on the wall.

"Oh. That makes sense." Jack was unamused as he realized he had acquired sudden fame.

"Yeah dude, like, you're a celebrity here, did you know?" Michael said with a smile on his face. "Everyone is talking about that young fighter that ended the reign of the Southern Dojo in the Trainee Tournaments. That was impressive!"

"I see... Well, thanks, Mike," Jack answered to his energetic classmate.

"People got bummed that you didn't get earlier here, you know? Why did you have to come late?"

Jack remembered the short detour on his road to the Dojo that morning, the issue with the thug, and how he became friends with the daughter of an important politician. "I was busy," he declared with disinterest.

Michael noticed Jack's bored expression. "Hey, you don't want this sort of fame, right?"

"It's not that. But I'd rather if everyone treated me as a normal guy. Just like you and everyone else."

"Don't you think that's irrealistic, though?" Michael's gaze turned more serious and his smile disappeared as he spoke. "You're a prodigy, the hero of the school. It's almost like a fate you can't escape..."

"I still want to give it a try."

The class got silent as one of the theory teachers entered the classroom. "Morning, students." A raspy voice flew through the air as the sensei entered. His name was Clifford Weiss. He would teach them History and Science.

The lecture started almost immediately, with the Junior Engineers paying all possible attention to what the teacher had to say.

"As you probably know, Alpha Energy was discovered in the late sixties by Colombian and Japanese scientists Pablo Ríos and Yoshio Hariken. They met each other while fighting in the Korean War and started working together since. Said energy could be used to power any type of tool and even interact with what was known at that time as another dimension or plane of existence."

The hoarse voice of the teacher echoed through the classroom, but his words and the way he narrated the events in his lecture captured the ears of every single person.

"In 1975, a nuclear conflict exploded between the largest economies of the world at the time. The United States of America and the Soviet Union. While they were engaging in a conflict known today as the Cold War, the breaking point came when a nuclear explosion happened in the sea between the islands of Hokkaido and Sakhalin. No one knew who actually detonated it, but it was enough for both countries to start World War III."

Michael raised his hand. "Sensei, if no one knew who launched the nuke, then why did they go to war?"

"Well," the teacher answered. "There's no evidence that the explosion was caused by a nuclear bomb. But the tension between the world powers was so tangible that they would use whatever excuse they had to try and eliminate each other."

As Clifford talked, the faces of some of the students went pale, realizing how the world they lived in was a result of that past war.

"It's clear that they didn't take into consideration the risks that a war like that could represent." The master continued. "Everything north of the Cancer Tropic was destroyed either by the explosions of nuclear bombs or the harsh nuclear winter that arrived after the war had ended."

"And when did the war end?" A young boy sitting in one of the back rows shyly asked.

"When the only thing left to destroy was life itself." The teacher took a breath, it was clear he had strong feelings about that war and the state of the world after that. "The northern hemisphere was deemed unhabitable, by both the radiation and the cold temperatures. The southern hemisphere's climate changed in bizarre ways. The only place that offered somewhat of a good quality of life was here. Near the equator."

The class paid close attention to the lecture. This topic wasn't something that was taught in basic education or high school, so getting to know the truth this way was a shock for some of the young Engineers.

"Humanity turned back to a state of tribalism and nomadic tendencies. It was a question of survival, after all. However, someone known by the nickname of 'the Golden Reaper' rediscovered Ríos and Hariken's work. What's more, with this discovery, humanity learned that nuclear explosions caused Alpha Energy to be released into the atmosphere. That way, mankind was able to go back to a golden age in record time."

The teacher took a moment to have some vocal rest and drink water, before continuing.

"But there was another issue. Remember what I told you were the capacities of Alpha Energy?"The teacher's gaze scanned the room, waiting for someone to ask the question.

"Kennedy, would you mind answering?"

Jack was caught by surprise but had no issue remembering what the teacher said earlier. "Powering any type of tool or device, and communicating with different planes of existence."

"Correct!" Clifford exclaimed. "While that meant a chance to start anew for civilization, with capabilities of gathering, hypothetically, infinite resources, it also meant contact with species completely unknown to biologists. Those species received the name of-"

"MONSTERS!" A piercing scream could be heard through the walls, the floor started shaking and some window glasses broke. The Dojo was under attack!