Start of the none

All around me, I heard happy March 17th, signifying our graduation. Still, I should’ve been focused on the problem ahead of me more. Though to me it seemed very insignificant, at least at the time.

“Better give me your wallet, fool!” Punks like this are never serious; I can easily scare him off.

“ No, I can destroy you, so give up,” I said to the guy trying to rob me. He reached into his pocket, seemingly digging something out, and he slowly started drawing his hand out.

“ What’s your name, kid? How old are you? It's not worth dyin’ over,” he said with a sinister grin spread across his face.

“ Ryushou, Gen, 17 years and 8 months, don’t do anything stupid, we’re just outside school, they still have cameras, ya know,” I say, plainly staring straight into his soul. Then in a split second, he rushes at me with a knife in his hands, it was too close proximity for me to dodge, so I stuck my hand out to absorb the blade.

“ What the hell!?.. You monster!” He yells, running away. I looked down to see the knife twisted into a spiral, but my hand was completely unharmed. I started to walk away when I heard a loud yell. “Die, you stupid dragon kin!” It was the same thug from earlier this time though he had a syringe with strange light blue liquid in it, I took a slight step right making him miss when the syringe cracked open for a second I saw the reflection of a massacre, with the thug tripping the tiniest drop of his blood mixed with the mysterious liquid in the syringe

Completely defeated, the thug unceremoniously ran away, crying and screaming. I bent down to throw away the knife, but with the whole thing messed up, I cut myself on the handle, reflexively flinging the knife away from me. Given that I was bent over, it didn’t go far. However, where it went was super unlucky; it got mixed in with that weird blue liquid.

“ Who is it that wishes to change their fate?” An Ethereal voice boomed out seemingly from the sky. “ Who is it that wishes to change their fate!” This time, the voice was more authoritative, calling out one last time, it said. “ I’m calling out to you, Ryoushou Gen, look into the liquid if you dare.”

“ Nah, I’m good, sounds like a prank.” I grabbed my bag and started walking off.

“ I didn’t mean it literally, jerk, just look in!” I could tell now it was a soft female voice; the boom was now gone. I stood over the puddle and saw a slaughter. “ This is the world you are tasked to save. Avoid it all you want, this world is tied to your fate.

I fell back, utterly horrified at what I had just seen. Slowly, I started crab walking back further and further until I broke out into a full sprint. What the hell, I can’t possibly do anything about that; it had to be a hallucination! Maybe I had gotten injected and was dreaming. As I was running, I sank into a puddle, and in an instant, I was trapped in complete darkness.

“ This can’t be it! I need to talk to my family… my friends tell them how much I appreciate them for sticking with a hippie like me…” Those were the last words I uttered before I was absorbed by the darkness.

“ New role, upgraded from civilian to hero, Hero role has upgraded to savior… error, error. Role generated academy student 1st year student Ryushou Gen.” A robotic voice that sounded and felt like a wave flowing around my head said. I started falling from the sky, thudding into a lake. What the heck, why'd I start off in a lake, pretty rude if you ask me! I quickly swam over to the first bit of land I could see. My clothes were completely soaked. “ Would you like your magic tutorial?” The robotic voice said I could now tell this voice was entirely in my head.

“ Magic sounds cool. What are my options?” I say out loud, I don’t know if this thing can reply to thoughts. I know I look insane talking to myself, though.

“ Given your current status as an Academy student, Mana is 100 points below the average of 1,000, with swordsmanship grades in the top three percentile. You can choose between these five options. Light & Darkness, Fire & Wind, Earth, elven sword technique, and ungifted.” The voice ran through the options without giving me time to process half of what she had said.

Light and Darkness would look cool for sure, but fire and wind are strong together, and if I’m fighting a catastrophe, I definitely need to be strong. I trained like my favorite anime characters, but putting in the time to learn an official technique sounds like a pain.” I think I’ll go with the ungifted powers.” I know this will be a risk. I don't exactly know what it is, but if I can use at least a little of every element, that’s got to get me somewhere, right?

“ Standby as you may experience rough heart palpitations.” Before I could cancel, I fell to my knees panting, struggling to breathe. It was for sure the most intense pain I'd ever experienced. I’d believe it if someone told me my heart was being squeezed like a lemon.

Heh, I hear out of the corner of my ear, I can’t really move… I’m in too much pain. “ All that light over this brat? What a Joke, can't even stand to look at me.” A deep male voice said, walking closer to me, I knew I was in trouble. I could hear the twistedness of the guy in his voice; it felt as if every negative emotion and feeling ever had combined into an entity; however, I knew he wasn’t the only one, given the slaughter I had seen earlier.

“ You can’t touch him!” an assertive female voice yelled at the monstrous force that was mocking me.

“ You think you can stop me, you damned government puppet Lior Seren!” While the voice before was purely unsettling, this was a whole other level; it was pure terror personified.

“ You’re an archdemon, Pachad, stop acting like a worthless child.” I guess to fight these monsters, you have to be terrifying in your own right. I never thought another human could shake me to my very core.

The pain was too much to bear. I wanted to pass out, but I just couldn't. The voice called to me, “ If you shut down now, installation of ungifted will be deleted”.

“ How much longer, tell me!” I grab my chest, practically begging for this to end.

“ Installation completed, you now have access to every type of magic; however, you are capped at an average proficiency in each category.” The voice explained. I was more excited for the pain to stop, though. I slid back. I couldn't quite stand up just yet, so I made it to a tree where I could prop myself up. I sat back and watched as the humans charged into battle. Being able to see the monster was something totally different from hearing it. I had to look up to see its face, but it had to be eight feet tall. It was blacker than the night sky with a face twisted into a wicked smile. What made it truly horrifying was its crossed eyes. They reached out of the sockets, and somehow, he was able to control them.

“ Hey buddy, you okay?” Some rescue workers had come to evacuate me. I looked over at the lady who was fighting the monster. I could barely see anything except her silver hair zooming all around. “ Captain can drive it off; we don't need to kill it today, just relax.” At their words, I felt my stress flow out all under the tree. I instantly fell asleep as soon as they put me on the stretcher; it was rather old-fashioned as they just laid me on a sheet carrying two sticks, but to me it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

“Where am I!?, oh now I remember that terrifying lady was fighting that monster…” I was just thinking aloud that it might have been the wrong choice.

“ Terrifying, am I? I could easily beat you to a bloody pulp. I guess that’s fair. Anyway, I’m-”

“ Lior Seren, captain of some type.” I interrupted. I knew I messed up when I finally looked over at her. She was the ideal image of a heroine. Her hair might not have been red like it was in the stories I loved. She embodied it perfectly, her long silver hair drawn into a ponytail and her eyes steeled with some intense determination driving her.

“ Next time you interrupt me, you're dead, loser, you just got out of a week's coma, but it sounds like you want to go back… but yeah, I’m captain of the peace corps first division… Who are you and where are you from?” I noticed her hand rested on her hip, but something was off. There was almost like a blank space between where her hand was and where it should’ve been.

“ Ryoushou Gen, I’m from a different world, although that might be hard to believe,” I said as I started taking in my surroundings. I was in a hospital for sure, nothing like the modern hospitals today. This was more like an apartment room, a door, a table, a window, lighting, and a bed.

“ Don’t make me laugh; no other realities exist otherwise, we wouldn’t be suffering through this hellscape of a planet.” She said, glaring at me, her hand shifted slightly into a more aggressive position. It was now clear that a weapon was there, but it was invisible.

“ Yeah, figures, but I’m telling the truth, where's my bag, you’ll see then,” I said, looking around the room for my stuff.

“ You didn’t have anything on you except a weird transmitter that was completely destroyed. I'd like to ask about it later. Currently, we have no information on you. We selected Netzach Academy for you, given your visible age.” Seren explained what the academy was, going into excruciating detail. “ Blah Blah Academy is a place for social blah blah magic and swordsmanship. blah top 5 join the front line fighters.” Or at least that’s what I heard. Seren threw my uniform at my face and left.

I guess this is the role I’ll serve… It was kind of forced on me; there wasn’t any room to argue, although it probably won’t be all that bad. I unpackaged my uniform and tried it on to see if it looked cool or not. For a school uniform, it was perfect! For boys: a dress shirt and black jeans with a long black trench coat looking more like a cape and black dress shoes. When I tried my uniform on, I thought I looked perfect. Usually, with my yellow eyes and hair, it makes it hard to match outfits, especially school uniforms. The girls' uniforms were a white minidress with grey knee socks and black shoes covered by a white swing coat.

After a week of getting used to the culture, I was finally introduced to my class. “Hello everyone, starting today, we have a transfer student, so to speak. Introduce yourself and your magic type.” Our teacher was an older man, seemingly older from the military. He sounded and looked dead inside. He had coarse blonde hair down to his shoulders and stubble for a beard. He wore a black long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans.

“ Hello everyone, I’m your new classmate Ryoushou Gen. I don’t exactly know my type yet, but we have some beauties in here, so I’m sure I could learn,” I added, trying to sound cool, but I think it had the opposite effect.

“ I’m Dror Cherut to you, Mr .Dror, now get to your seat, scumbag.” Mr. Dror hit me in the back with what felt like a slap; it might have something to do with his magic attribute, I thought. I sat beside a girl who was half asleep and a guy who seemed intent on his studies. He had light blue hair and navy blue eyes. He had glasses, although they looked fake, maybe because they’re not as advanced as I’m used to? The girl had snow white hair with bright purple eyes, but her eyes were almost dead. It was a little scary.

“ Hey, as you heard, I’m new… Mind if I peek at your notes?” I whisper to him, hoping to stay lowkey.

“ Incompetent dork. You’d be better off wallowing in self-pity like Afela over there.” He looked at me as if I were a rat, someone he wanted to crush. I looked at the girl beside me. She was sitting with her face against the table.

“ More like you’re too uptight, Chacham. “ Afela muttered barely above a whisper.

“You three in the back stop talking, that’s lunch detention.” Mr .Dror said, glaring at us.

After class, I was forced to go to the front office to put in my request for a sword. The school has a special contract with the Gezar smithery. Every student has a custom sword made for them. Usually, it includes a magic stone, so it can be infused with their mana and unleash strong magical slashes. Jeez, Seren really drilled this stuff into me. I sound like a damn infomercial.

I knock on the dean’s door. I really don’t know anything about the dean, but if it’s a lazy slob like at my last school, I’m in deep trouble. “ Ah, Mr.Ryoushou, come in,” a soft voice called through the door. I walk through the door, greeted by a cute little dog. It looked like a chihuahua, but something was off for sure…I stared down at it and finally saw what the difference was; it had a second tail, not only that, but when it jumped, it started floating. “ Ah, don’t mind Guri, he’s harmless, anyway, I’m Orzala Sabriya. Dean of the school, I heard about your predicament. You don’t know your magic type, but you also need a sword.” Ms .Orzala said. She didn’t look like much of a dean at all; she had golden blonde hair down to her shoulders with high heels and a black maxi dress.

“ Yeah, that about sums it up. Do we have anything to help me with the magic attribute?” I asked her, looking around the room, which barely looked like an office, about five or six dogs were running around, all with two or three tails, depending on size.

“ Of course, we can assess your magic type. All we need for the sword is a design from you.”Ms .Orzala said as she slid me a piece of paper titled ‘ The essentials of sword designs.’ I read a little bit of the paper and sketched out my draft. “ I should warn you, the design will be tweaked to make the swords as strong as possible.” She adds, digging through her desk for something.

I made some minor tweaks upon hearing that. I wanted a traditional Shirasayai, but to have them curve a blade, let alone leave out a handguard, seemed like a big reach, but I sent it out hoping they’d accept my design. “ Alright, here we are, your magic type will either be discovered or we’ll throw you into serious extra training until we figure out which one works best, kay?” she asked, pulling out a piece of paper with a handprint on it.

Following her instructions, I placed my hand on the paper as closely aligned with the handprint as possible. For a second, nothing happened. We waited a bit, but still nothing. “ We can do this with blood that gives better results anyway, you don’t mind, do you?” Ms .Orzala asks excitedly.

I guess if it'll help us figure this out…” Without a moment to prepare, she poked my finger and let the blood drip onto the paper, a mysterious light emerging from it.

“ This is wonderful, you have no proficiency at anything, you max out pretty early in every single magic category.” She says, looking at me excitedly, I don’t know if that was supposed to be an insult or not, but it sure didn’t make me excited about learning magic. “ Congratulations, Gen, you are our new master of none!” Ms .Orzala said, bowing down on one knee..