Real Magic? Real Magic. Real Magic!?

Oh what the hell!

It was already 7:45 AM, I was going to be late to my first day of school. Talk about a great first impression. Honoko was no where to be found in our room, she must have taken off for class already. We were supposed to go to class together, but I guess she didn’t feel like waking me up.

I frantically threw on my school uniform while brushing my teeth in the bathroom, there was no time to make breakfast or grab any on the way. I guess I’d have to make it until lunch without eating. I glanced at the clock, 7:52 AM. The school wasn’t very far away, but how quickly would I be able to find my classroom? Eight minutes was definitely pushing my luck. I flung the door open and sprinted to the elevator. Even though hitting the elevator button repeatedly didn’t actually make it arrive faster, I found myself mashing the button non-stop. 15 seconds later, the elevator still hadn’t arrived. Screw it, I’d be better off taking the stairs.

The stairwell was conveniently located right next to the elevator so I didn’t have to go very far. I practically flew down the stairs. As I swung around the last flight of stairs I noticed someone walking down the stairs in front of me. At that point, it was too late. With a loud thud I crashed into him and we both tumbled to the bottom of the stairwell.

“You wanna try slowing down a little bit?” he said with a soft chuckle. Thank goodness I bumped into someone friendly. Although I couldn’t place his face, he must have missed the dorm meeting yesterday.

“Sorry about that, class just starts at 8:00 AM and I really don’t want to be late on my first day.”

“Wait, class starts at 8:00?!?!” he said with a newly anxious expression. “I thought classes started at 8:30!”

I stood up and grabbed my bag. I reached my hand out and helped the stranger up. For some reason, the first thing I noticed was his open collar, I thought the black tie was an official part of the school uniform. He did have the same deep red jacket and black slacks as me, but I guess he wasn’t a fan of ties.

“Nope, they start at 8:00, so I guess we’re both going to be late…”

“NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!”

Without a moments hesitation, he grabbed my arm. His shouting and overall outlandish behavior caught me off guard. Before I could process any of my thoughts, I was yanked hard on the arm and running at a breakneck pace.

“How the hell are you so fast!” I shouted as my legs churned to keep up to no avail. I was no longer running, I was being dragged through the air. “Slow down!”

The boy hit a hard stop and I swear I could see smoke coming from the soles of his shoes. While he was able to stop his momentum in an instant, I was not. I tumbled past him and tripped straight into a wall.

“Dude, are you trying to kill me! How can you even run that fast!”

“Hey quiet down,” he responded, somehow not out of breath. “We aren’t allowed to use magic off of school property, so keep your voice down.”

Magic? How was what he did magic? At the dorm meeting yesterday, I was told the same no magic rule when I offered to perform a simple card trick. Why was he referencing an irrelevant rule now? Last time I checked, being a track star wasn’t any form of magic.

“Okay, sorry,” I replied not wanting to cause a fuss.

“Anyway, here we are, with 2 minutes to spare.”

In disbelief I looked up and saw the wall I stumbled into was actually the wall surrounding the school property. To check my sanity, I pulled out my smartphone to check the time. 7:58 AM. But how???

“Lets hurry up and find the classroom.”

Still in shock, I stood up and followed him through the school gate. It was a sight to behold. I saw the school from a distance when I first arrived to the island, but this was my first time up close and personal with it. The architecture was modern and sleek, and was complemented perfectly by the clear, blue sky, and the clear ocean water surrounding the island. The school itself was massive, far larger than my middle school and larger than any of the local high schools near my family home.

My amazement continued once we entered the schools main hall. Raise ceilings, extravagant stairwells, it was an architectural masterpiece. I guess with a school this nice it made sense that the dorms were so vanilla. It must’ve cost a fortune to construct this place.

“Oh yeah, I never introduced myself, I’m Arata Nakamura.”

“Shun Adachi, I hope we can become good friends.”

Honestly, it sort of scared me how pure he seemed to be. I ran into him in the stairwell and he wasn’t mad at all, and now he wants to be good friends? What a nice guy. A nice change of pace from the tension I felt hanging around with Honoko or Yukino. Plus, this was my first guy “friend.”

After wandering the school halls for a few minutes Shun and I finally found our classroom. As rank A students, we were fittingly members of class 1-A. I took one last look at my smartphone before entering the classroom, it was 8:03 AM, we were three minutes late on the first day.

“I wonder if we’ll get in trouble…” I said nervously.

“I hope not… I don’t think I could take getting grilled in front of the whole class…”

Taking the lead, I opened the door and walked in quickly followed by Shun. I felt a pit in my stomach as everyone turned to face the door, including the teacher. Even though it was a high school, the classroom was organized like a university lecture hall, so rows and rows of eyes were planted squarely on me and Shun. Our teacher was a young woman, probably around the same age as Ms. Ayase, if not a year or two older. And like Ms. Ayase, she was a looker.

“Well now that these two delinquents are here I guess we can get started. Take any open seats, there are more seats than students here.”

Shun glanced over at me and we both let out a sigh of relief. For the time being we appeared to avoid any punishment for being late. We walked up one of the two aisles between the rows of seats and sat down next to one another in one of the middle rows. Honoko was sitting towards the front, but I had no desire to sit near her. Yukino and Emi were both sitting two rows behind me.

“Just to clarify, you two are Shun Adachi and Arata Nakamura, correct?” the teacher asked sweetly.

“Yes ma’am,” we responded in unison.

The expression on the teachers face quickly changed. “Good, you’ll both be on cleaning duty for the rest of the month.”

I sported a look of embarrassment and despair as some of our classmates whispered and giggled to one another. Laughing stock on the very first day, great.

“Alright class, it’s the first day, so we’ll keep things simple to start. As I said before the knuckleheads arrived, I’m Ms. Kurokawa, and I’ll be your primary instructor for the year. You’ll be taught by other teachers for some special topics, but generally speaking I will be your instructor. I’m not a believer in doing in class ice breakers or anything, and since all of you live in Sugawara Hall, I figure you can get to know each other on your own time.”

Clearly Ms. Kurokawa was not up to date on the activities of Sugawara Hall, since we had a meet and greet last night. I guess it wasn’t her job to take interest in our personal lives, just to teach us material.

“Morning classes will be academically focused. Even though this is a high school for magic, you all still need to be functioning members of society. As a result you’ll still be taking core classes like at a normal high school. So don’t think you can afford to slack off just because you’re special. Afternoon classes, however, will all be dedicated to magic. Since today is your first day, we won’t be holding any normal classes this morning, rather, we will be going on a tour of the school and the relevant areas of the island. After lunch, we will start routine magic themed classes. Okay everyone, follow me.”

As quickly as I sat down, I was back on my feet. At least I had Shun by my side. Of course I recognized my roommate Honoko, the polar opposites Yukino and Emi, and the endearing Shinobu, but approaching them felt too awkward after showing up late to class. They probably didn’t want to associate with the class clown. Shun and I followed the crowd as we flowed out of the classroom.

“Man, we got pretty lucky don’t you think?” Shun said as he adjusted the headband on his forehead. Wearing a headband sure seems impractical for how much hair he has.

“Lucky? How exactly? We got belittled in front of the entire class.”

“Oh c’mon, that wasn’t belittling at all. We just have cleaning duty for a month, stop being so down on yourself man!”

He gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. He sure was friendly to a guy that ran him over in the stairwell.

“So Adachi…”

“No no,” he cut me off. “None of this Adachi stuff, we’re bros now, just call me Shun. Is it cool if I call you Arata?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s fine.” I replied a bit surprised. I wasn’t close enough to be on a first name basis with anyone in middle school. Once my passion for magic got out, I became a stranger to everyone. “So Shun, do you know anybody at this school?”

“Nope, I’m the only person from my middle school here.”

The group made its first stop. Hardly paying attention to where I was walking, I almost bumped into the girl in front of me.

“This is the entrance to the school cafeteria,” Ms. Kurokawa said. “All school cafeteria meals cost ¥850, so feel free to buy whatever meal sounds best to you. Or bring your own lunch, I can’t decide those things for you.”

Something told me that Ms. Kurokawa was not very enthusiastic about this part of her job.

“¥850? That’s kind of expensive don’t you think Arata? They better serve some gourmet stuff here.” Shun said half jokingly.

The girl standing in front of us turned around. Somehow, I hadn’t recognized her from the color of her hair. But once she turned to face us, I remembered her instantly.

“Oh hey Nakamura,” Shinobu said playfully. “Way to arrive late on your first day.”

“Hi Shiina, I know, it was pretty embarrassing,” I responded dejectedly.

“I was just joking, you sure seem to love playing the role of downer, Nakamura.”

Shun watched my conversation unfold before him with a strange expression. It was honestly kind of creeping me out.

“Uh Shun, you okay?”

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure… but I think our tour is going to move along in a second.”

The tour no longer seemed to matter to Shun. He pulled me aside and whispered to the best of his ability.

“Dude, you already know a girl in our class? And a girl that good looking? Introduce me.”

“The dorm hall had a meet and greet last night,” I responded. “But I guess you weren’t there. I don’t remember seeing you there at least.”

“I missed it, but that doesn’t matter. Introduce me man, please?”

I spotted out of the corner of my eye that the class was beginning to move. I made my move to rejoin the group. Surprisingly, Shinobu was waiting for us at the rear of the group.

“Shiina, this is my friend Shun Adachi. Shun, this is Shinobu Shiina.”

“Nice to meet you,” Shun said flirtatiously. His mannerisms were entirely different from the way he interacted with me. Girls could surely see through such an act, right?

“Nice to meet you too, Adachi. A friend of Nakamura is a friend of mine. Nakamura, you should introduce him to your other friends.”

By other friends she surely meant Yukino and Emi, but classifying them as friends was a bit of a stretch. More than a stretch in my opinion. An astronomical leap was more like it.

“How many friends have you already made?” Shun asked in a beaten tone. “You’re making me feel like I’ve fallen way behind the curve. I guess you’re Mr. Popular around here.”

“Yeah, he’s friends with those two over there.”

As she spoke Shinobu pointed blatantly and expressively towards Yukino and Ichinose. Her movement was so exaggerated it caught the attention of both of them. They both made their way over to our slowly increasing cluster of people.

“Is there a reason you were pointing at us?” Yukino asked plainly.

“Well, care to explain, Nakamura?”

“Oh, well,” I mumbled through my words. Shinobu definitely put me on the spot intentionally. Watching my interactions must be entertaining to her or something. “This is my friend, Shun Adachi.”

“I’m aware,” Yukino responded. “He’s the one who arrived with you late to class.”

“I may have overslept a little bit,” Shun said with a sheepish chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Nice to meet you Adachi!” Emi said with her usual excitement. “I’m Emi Ichinose, and this is my roommate, Yukino Yukimura!”

“Nice to meet both of you.”

The group came to a halt once again. Ms. Kurokawa placed her ID badge on an electronic reader, opening the metal door in front of us. On the other side was a vast courtyard, perfectly divided into grids.

“This school has a pretty open floor plan as I’m sure some of you saw on the map,” Ms. Kurokawa explained. “Here in the middle is the training area you will be using. There are specialized classrooms for individual training, so the only time you should be out here is for practice with another student. To use this area, you must have a supervisor with you, such as myself.”

The courtyard was absolutely massive. Given the type of magics tricks I conducted, I couldn’t envision myself needing even a quarter of that space. From what I saw at the auditions, though, I could see someone like Emi needing more space to rig her cables.

After what felt like an eternity of walking we returned to our classroom, 1-A. We all returned to our desks. I glanced up at the clock in the classroom, it was almost lunch time. I guess time flew by faster than I thought on that tour.

“As I’m sure most of you know, it’s almost lunch time,” Ms. Kurokawa said. “We went by the cafeteria on our tour, so feel free to go there to eat if you’d like. You can also get food and bring it back here, the entire campus is open for lunch. You may also leave campus to pick up food at any of the nearby convenience stores as long as you make it back for afternoon classes on time. Here at the Apex School, we believe our students can be responsible even with additional freedoms. Dismissed, enjoy your lunch.”

Without another word, Ms. Kurokawa left the classroom. She probably went somewhere else in the building to eat with other teachers.

“Do you want to go eat in the cafeteria?” Shun asked as we got out of our seats.

“Sounds good to me, I didn’t bring anything for lunch today anyway.”

Before we could get anywhere near the classroom door Emi came barreling towards us, Yukino in tow.

“Are you two going to the cafeteria for lunch?”

“Sure are,” Shun responded with a charming smile.

“Can Yukino and I come with you? We can all eat together!”

“Thank you for volunteering me for something I never agreed to,” Yukino snapped back.

“Oh come on Yukino! Don’t you want to make friends?”

She offered no confirmation or rebuttal to Emi’s claim. Without any further fuss, all four of us left the classroom heading for the school cafeteria.

“What can I get for you dear?” The cafeteria staffer asked me.

“I’ll try the curry I think.”

She trotted back into the kitchen and emerged moments later with a steaming hot plate of curry and rice. For school food, it looked extremely appetizing. Shun followed my lead and ordered the curry as well. Emi opted for some type of bun while Yukino went with miso soup. Trays in hand, the four of us took a seat at the first open table we could find.

“So Shun, how come you were alone this morning when I ran into you? Your roommate didn’t tell you that classes started at 8:00 AM not 8:30 AM?”

“No he didn’t, and I’m still pissed at him for that. He seems to be getting along okay without me, though.”

Shun pointed over to a boy sitting at another table. The table was completely packed, everyone was conversing and laughing. How was it so easy for other people to make friends?

“What’s his name?” Emi asked with a sparkling curiosity. “He’s pretty cute.”

Shun let out an exaggerated sigh. I guess it bruised his ego to hear his roommate complimented.

“His name is Sora Sonozaki. Don’t you think I’m cute too?”

“Sounds like you’re trying desperately to fish for compliments,” Yukino chimed in after taking a sip of her soup. She wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t need to say it so harshly.

“So, how did all of you hear about this school?” I asked in a feeble attempt to change the subject.

“My parents both work with magic,” Yukino replied quickly. She was the opposite of me, magic was the furthest thing from the structural engineering field my parents worked in.

“Same here!” Emi said with enthusiasm. “What do your parents do Yukino? Maybe our parents know each other or something!”

“Doubtful. My family is from Hokkaido, so I doubt there’s any ‘fate’ at work here.”

The sarcasm in Yukino’s voice when she mentioned “fate” was very apparent. Although it was a nice change of pace from her typical cold, calculated speech.

Shun was being awfully quiet, mostly looking at his tray of food. Perhaps he didn’t want to answer the question? Since I asked, I figured I would answer as well.

“I’ve been practicing magic for as long as I can remember. Both my parents are engineers, so my counselor in middle school recommended this school for me.”

“Engineering is most certainly a more practical and perhaps more lucrative field to enter,” Yukino responded.

“You’re probably not wrong, but I’ve always loved magic.”

“You should pursue whatever makes you happy!” Emi chimed in. A fitting response for her.

The rest of lunch was uneventful. The four of us conversed in what seemed to be a friendly manner, although the conversation did feel a bit shallow and superficial. We had just met, though, so that was to be expected. Perhaps I was starting to form genuine friendships after all. Afterwards, we all returned to the classroom. Even though there were no assigned seats in the classroom, we said our goodbyes and returned to the same seats we occupied in the morning. Once again, it was just me and Shun.

The classroom door opened and Ms. Kurokawa entered. She was carrying a folder under her arm, one she didn’t leave the classroom with at the start of lunch.

“I see everyone made it back on time,” she said as she placed the folder down on her podium and opened it. She took a USB drive out of one of the folder’s pockets and stuck it into the projector.

The projector whizzed to life and displayed what appeared to be the entire class roster, although it was in no apparent order.

“What all of you are seeing up here is the class roster,” Ms. Kurokawa said, confirming my suspicions. “However, pay close attention to the order. This is the official class ranking to start the year.”

I could hear murmurs around the classroom. There were only 16 of us, so the list was short. Everyone’s rank was openly available for the entire class to see.

“Throughout the year there will be opportunities to change your class rank for the better or worse. At the end of the year, the bottom two students of class A will face off against the top two students of class B for the right to a spot in class A. The losers will be sent down to class B.”

Ms. Kurokawa kept explaining the class ranking system, but I tuned out her voice. I was ranked 14th in a class of 16 students? I was only one spot above potential relegation to class B! Sitting right below me in the ranking was Shun. Great, the two class clowns that showed up late on the first day of school also happened to be two of the three worst students in the class. Of course, before finding myself at rank 14, I saw Yukino ranked 2nd in the entire class. Shinobu was ranked 3rd, my hot headed roommate Honoko was ranked 7th, and Yukino’s roommate Emi was a bit further behind ranked 9th. So, everyone I’ve met so far besides Shun was ranked significantly ahead of me.

“There are certain privileges awarded to students who finish in the top four of the class, so work hard to keep your rank up.”

I glanced over at Shun. He was looking straight at me with a face of despair. Unsurprisingly, being ranked 15th didn’t seem to sit well with him.

“Don’t worry Shun, I’m sure we can rise up the ranks together in no time.”

My reassurance fell on deaf ears. Shun’s worried expression didn’t change even slightly.

“Alright that’s enough time spent looking at the rankings. Students can access the rankings online through the school web portal. Let’s get started with our first lesson. Even though this is class A, as first years we need to start with the basics.”

Ms. Kurokawa powered down the projector and put away the USB drive.

“Would anyone like to volunteer for the first demonstration?”

I certainly wasn’t going to raise my hand. Being a volunteer in a class full of prestigious students was a risk in and of itself, but being the very first volunteer of the school year? One would never be able to recover from making a blunder in a situation like this. I slumped in my chair, as if making my body smaller would make me less likely to be called on. Shun had the same idea as me and also sat back in his chair.

“How about you, Yukimura? Here’s a chance for you to show off why you’re ranked second in the entire class.”

“Oh yeah, you’ve got this Yukino!” Emi shouted enthusiastically.

“I guess it would be unreasonable for me to refuse the request of a teacher.”

Yukino left her desk and walked down to the front of the classroom and stood beside Ms. Kurokawa.

“Now as I’m sure most of you already know, people can specialize in different kinds of magic. Yukimura, what is your specialty?”

“Ice magic.”

Even to our teacher, Yukino was as blunt as ever.

“Okay, perfect. Even with specialties, there are some basic fundamentals of magic that everyone should know.”

Clearly Ms. Kurokawa meant necessities such as simple sleight of hand techniques or types of shuffles. I still didn’t know what ice magic meant exactly, but learning visually deceptive tricks needed for card tricks and such seemed like a basic starting point.

“One of these fundamentals,” Ms. Kurokawa continued, is defensive barrier magic. Okay, Yukimura, throw some ice at me.”

Defensive barrier magic? What now?

Yukino widened her stance. She held her right hand to her side, palm facing the ceiling. What I saw next seemed to break reality, defy all laws of nature. Was I seeing things?

Small ice shards began forming above Yukino’s palm, like miniature knives made of ice. Once a decent number had formed, Yukino turned her palm towards Ms. Kurokawa. She thrust her arm forward and sent the shards flying straight for her target. Was this real life? My eyes must have been playing some kind of trick on me. With the shards of ice rapidly closing in on Ms. Kurokawa, she graciously threw her arms up in front of her face in the shape of an X. A translucent green barrier formed in front of her body, absorbing the impact of the ice shards, and shattering them.

Wait… Is this… real magic? Like the kind you would see in a manga or Hollywood action movie?

In the moment I think my heart stopped beating. I was probably seconds away from dropping to the floor.

“Hey Arata, are you okay?”

Clearly my shock was very apparent, given Shun’s concern. Somehow, him questioning me brought me back to reality.

“I just have a quick question.”

“What’s up?”

“What the hell was that?”

Shun flashed me a puzzled look. I could visualize the question marks dancing around above his head. To him, and the rest of the class, what just occurred before us was normal. Or, at least normal enough to warrant no reaction.

“What do you mean? Yukino just used some ice magic and Ms. Kurokawa blocked it with her barrier magic. Have you never seen barrier magic or something? I figured everyone in class A would be familiar with it.”

Oh, of course. I forgot that conjuring a light barrier to block conjured ice shards was something that everyone was supposed to be familiar with. Did I miss the major news development when magic was proven to actually exist? Houdini was probably rolling over in his grave at such a development.

“Oh, yeah, barrier magic,” I said unconvincingly. “I was just surprised something like that needed to be explained to us.”

“I totally get what you mean, simple barrier magic seems like something that should be reserved for the class D students.”

I had to give myself some credit, I was quick on my feet. It was a comfortable enough save given the circumstances. Sadly, my quick thinking was only digging a bigger hole for myself. By playing along and successfully hiding my astonishment at genuine magic existing in this world, I gave off the impression I was a worthy class A student. The impression that I was somehow too good to be learning something as feeble as barrier magic.

“Barrier magic works against a lot more than just ice magic,” Ms. Kurokawa continued. “Yukimura, you’re a bright girl, you know other basic attacking magic I assume?”

“Yes ma’am I do.”

“Great, throw something else at me.”

Yukino took the same stance she took prior to launching her ice daggers. This time, sparks began to form at her fingertips. In a flash, the small electric shocks flew through the air. Once again, Ms. Kurokawa threw up her barrier and dispelled the attack with ease. So Yukino could use more than just ice magic? How was I supposed to survive in a school like this when I can’t even use one type of magic?

“You can return to your seat now, Yukimura. Would anyone else like to challenge me?”

The way Ms. Kurokawa phrased that made it sound almost threatening. She’s the teacher, clearly she’s stronger than us.

Shun raised his hand. He was the last person I expected to volunteer, besides myself of course. Ms. Kurokawa motioned for him to come to the front of the classroom.

“So, delinquent boy, let’s see what you’ve got.”

A cheeky smirk emerged on Shun’s face. Like Yukino, he produced some electric bolts, although his looked markedly weaker than Yukino’s. Ms. Kurokawa threw up her barrier, stopping the attack dead in its tracks.

I glanced back towards where Shun was standing, expecting to see a look of disappointment on his face. Except, Shun was no longer standing there! When I took my eyes off him to watch the bolts of electricity, he must have moved. I looked back to Ms. Kurokawa, Shun was right behind her!

“I’ve got you now!”

Shun’s demise seemed to play out in slow motion. As he went to strike Ms. Kurokawa in the back, she swiftly turned to face him and grabbed his arm. Calmly, she twisted his arm and threw Shun to the ground. Well, at least Shun was embarrassed twice today, compared to my singular embarrassment.

“You thought you could get me with a trick as simple as that?” Ms. Kurokawa scoffed. “I’m your teacher, I know your magic is increased speed. Go back to your buddy.”

Shun picked himself up off the floor and slowly made his way back towards me, hanging his head in shame.

“I really thought I’d have her too…” he said as he slumped over in his chair.

“Some of you may have noticed that when the class clown tried to attack me from behind, I didn’t throw up a barrier behind me. As I would expect most of you to know, barrier magic does not protect against physical attacks, like his weak attempt at a strike. The barrier only deflects magical attacks.”

The more Ms. Kurokawa talked, the more she put Shun down. Although, he kind of set himself up for this with his rash overconfidence. It did provide me an important lesson, though, physical attacks cannot be blocked by barrier magic. Important is a bit of a stretch, since I was screwed at this school either way.

“Now, who can tell me why using basic barrier magic could be useful? If you specialize in some type of magic, why not defend yourself using your specialty?”

Shinobu raised her hand coolly. Ms. Kurokawa nodded to acknowledge her.

“When you’re sparring against someone new, you may not know what types of magic they can use,” Shinobu said confidently. “Using barrier magic allows you to study your opponent without putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage.”

Shinobu obviously knew what she was talking about. I guess that sort of knowledge comes with the territory of being ranked fourth in the top class of the grade. Just because you know magic doesn’t mean you can completely discard strategy.

“Correct. Using basic magic to gauge your opponent is a great strategy. Plus, if you specialize in something like ice magic, and your opponent specializes in fire magic, they may be at an advantage. Defending fire magic with ice magic would likely be a costly move. Now, there’s two directions we can go for the rest of the day. Who wants to hear me keep lecturing?”

I hesitantly put my hand halfway in the air. After scanning the room and seeing no other hands raised, I slowly lowered mine back down. I didn’t want to stick out as the only loser who wanted to keep listening to a lecture, even if it would be valuable for someone like me.

“Alright, then everyone follow me.”

Ms. Kurokawa opened the classroom door and walked outside. Slowly, we all filed out of the classroom to follow her.

“Excuse me Ms. Kurokawa, but where are we going?” one of my classmates with whiteish-grayish hair asked.

“Just keep following me.”

Soon enough, we found ourselves standing in the courtyard our class had visited during the morning tour. There were already numerous students in the courtyard, undoubtedly from other classes.

“Hello freshmen!” Ms. Kurokawa said with surprising volume. She didn’t seem like the type of person who could yell so loudly. She commanded the attention of everyone in the courtyard. “I guess nobody wanted to keep listening to lectures.” Her remark caused a lot of students to laugh. Who knew Ms. Kurokawa could be funny? Our classroom experience indicated she was nothing but ruthless. “Today, to showcase what you all can expect as students of this school, we have two upperclassmen here to spar for you!”

Was that… no way! It was Kaori Sakata, the girl from the front desk of Sugawara Hall. The guy she was facing off against didn’t look familiar to me. I wonder if he was also in class A?

“Hi everyone!” Sakata said with her warm smile. “I’m Kaori Sakata, a second year student in class A!”

She got a round of applause for her introduction, a combination of us underclassmen showing respect for our upperclassmen and the boys cheering for a beautiful girl.

“I’m Naoki Kato, a second year student in class B!”

His introduction was also met with applause, although definitively less than Sakata received.

“So, as Ms. Kurokawa said, Kato and I will be sparring with each other to show you how things work around here! Don’t get the wrong idea though, we’ll be going all out!”

Ms. Kurokawa took a seat atop an elevated chair, akin to one used by tennis umpires presiding over a match. “Alright, let’s get this started!”

The fight which unfolded before me was something out of this world, if you could even call it a fight. It was so one sided in Kaori’s favor, a beatdown would probably be the more appropriate term. The fight showcased the skill gap between class A and class B was massive. Class D students must be so far below class A that they aren’t even in the same realm of competitiveness, and yet they can all still use magic. I was utterly screwed being placed in class A, there was no chance I could survive.

Watching Kaori in combat was mesmerizing nonetheless. She specialized in what I would best describe as plant based magic. I watched in awe as she manipulated the grass and plants around the courtyard to do her bidding. Naoki was entirely overwhelmed. Despite using pyro magic, he failed to burn through Kaori’s relentless onslaught of roots and vines. He was swept off his feet and caught in a restricting web of plant. Rendered immobile, the fight was over as quickly as it began.

“Wow, she’s amazing.” I remarked to no one in particular.

“Tell me about it. What am I doing in Class A if she’s the standard for Class A students?” Shun replied.

I guess his confidence was lacking. I, of course, felt the same way, but for an entirely different reason.

The upper classmen put on a few more sparring rounds for our enjoyment, and to serve as a reality check. Even as members of Class A, we were still first years. Shun made it perfectly clear to me that he felt subpar in comparison to our seniors, even those that were members of classes B and C.

After the show was over, we were dismissed for the day. My first day was officially in the books. I learned a lot, gained some familiarity with the school, and even met someone new. But still, one thought dominated all others in my head. I… didn’t belong here.