Mystic Eye

“Magic huh?... What's so special about it?”

Daiki sighed as he stood on the rooftop of the highschool building, looking down on the world from his humble gaze.

“Well I have no issue with it, the problem is the way society fantasizes about it.”

He heard the bell signalling the end of lunch and the resumption for classes. His dulled eyes slowly drifted away from the surroundings as he walked back to class.

In class he sat on the chair by the window at the back, always looking outside. He always prayed for time to fly by and for class to come to a close as quickly as possible.

But in the end it never came through. It was the final class period of the day, that was the only time his eyes shone brightly like a baby receiving a toy.

The teacher taught the class and gave them an assignment that was due next week. 

‘Tch another homework. I'm never going to do that.’ he thought to himself as the teacher left.

The bell rang one final time signalling the end of school. Daiki stood up from his seat quickly and carried his bag. 

Three boys rested their hands on him, ruffling his hair and pulling his uniform.

“Daiki, where do you think you are running off to today?”

“You know what today is right?”

“Of course he knows… It's ‘Arcade’ day and you promised to follow us this time.”

The promise he made came back to him in an instant and he clicked his tongue, regretting that he made that promise.

‘Shit I didn't think it would be today, I'm so tired.’

“Hey! Where do you think you are going, Daiki.”

A sharp feminine voice cut through the boy's laughter.

It was the black haired beauty ‘Ren’. “Daiki have you forgotten that you and I are on class duty, I'm not cleaning up this place alone.”

For the first time in his life, Daiki was happy he was stuck on classroom duty, a cunning grin popped on his face but immediately changed to a sorrowful one in front of his friends.

“Sorry guys but Ren isn't going to let me off the hook, next time for sure.”

The three boys were disappointed but understood the bind he was in and decided to leave him be.

Minutes later, Ren and Daiki were done with duties. Ren looked at his grim face and stepped closer to him.

“Tomorrow is your birthday right?”
Daiki's face turned bright red, unable to stand properly as he began to fidget from Ren’s statement.

“You have always been like this since middle school. You lie to people that your birthday is during the holidays before we resume for the first term so no one can visit you or wish it to you… I thought when I found out that day you would be more open to people but-”

“It's okay Ren! You don't need to keep on talking about it.” His flustered face showed his embarrassment as he struggled to say that.

“It's fine as it is, you don't have to worry about me.”

Ren walked from him and went to her bag. She brought out a wrapped gift and gave it to Daiki.

“Happy sixteenth birthday Daiki Keita.” 

Her bright warm smile covered the room and lit up his dull eyes. He slowly took it from her as he bowed his head in appreciation.

“Thank you Ren, for this and not telling anybody when my actual birthday is.”

They both finished their class duty and headed out of school. Daiki walked Ren up to her bus stop but mistakenly brushed a guy in a high school by the shoulder.

“Sorry about that.”

The boy dressed in an all white high school uniform looked down on Daiki with eyes filled with disgust.

“Ugh, it's a ‘Dud’ look where you are going next time dud.”

Those words triggered Daiki as he looked straight into the eyes of the boy like a wild beast.

Before he could say anything a girl in the same white uniform pushed him aside and walked away from them with her schoolmate.

“Come on, let's go… You know it's not good to hang around with duds for too long.”

Daiki attempted to go after them but Ren held his hand and shook her head.

“It's not worth it… Thank you for walking me this far, goodnight Daiki.”
“Yeah goodnight.”

Daiki headed home, with this burning rage in his lungs. Back to his thoughts during the lunch period.

“Magic huh?... What's so special about it?”

He entered his house and saw a note on top of the tv. It was from his mother.

“Honey, don't eat your birthday cake that is in the fridge, only bring it out and stay up till midnight to wait for me as I will be home by then… I have a special birthday surprise for you so i want you up by then. Happy sixteenth birthday in a few hours.”

The note from his mother put all his anger to rest. He changed his clothes and waited in the sitting room for his mother.

He turned on the tv and saw news about the major achievement the top magic guild in Japan “Rikers” did.
They successfully slayed a swarm of magic jellyfishes about to raid a small town by the beach.

The reporter was about to interview the top three strongest mages in Rikers, including the beautiful ‘Nanako Miran’.

Daiki listened to everything and said to himself ‘I have no issue with magic,only have problems with people that fantasize about it.’

It was an hour and half away from his birthday. His eyes were slowly shutting but he pinched himself to stay up.

He stood up and made hot coco to be alert for his mother coming. As he took a small sip it burnt his tongue slightly.

“Ouch that hurt!”

The lights in the sitting room began to flicker, but later stayed constant. “That was weird, well it happens from time to time but what is really weird is you” he removed his necklace and raised it up.

It was an amulet of an eye slightly opened staring straight at him “I have always wondered what you are, mother says you are a protection charm but you are the only one i have seen.”

The lights flickered once, twice, then darkness. 

When they came back a second later, a finger gun from a huge man was pointed at his head.

Daiki's heart raced at an uncontrollable rate as the words from the man broke through “Target found… Holder of the mystic eye.”