Lessons in authority

Coach Katsumata leaves me alone in the locker room. What did he mean by that? I check my phone and realize I don’t have much time until break. I shove the clothes he gave me into my locker and head back towards the school. Inside the school I find an empty staircase to sit and wait on until the bell rings.

The bell eventually goes off and the stairs are flooded with students heading to their next class or meeting their friends for a quick chat. I couldn’t find Ikuma or Maya, so I make my way to my next class. I can feel a hundred prying eyes in the back of my skull as I pass. Everyone at school knows about me and Rikiyo, what she said in the hallway, and what she did after. I hate the feeling. It’s taking everything in me to not scream and run, but my next class should be better. After all, it’s a fun subject.

“Hello everyone! And welcome to ‘Introduction to Elements.’ This class is a branch of mystic sciences that will be fundamental if any of you decide to enter this field in the future.”

The teacher exclaims at the front of the classroom. He’s talking about a syllabus, resources, and what we’ll get out of the class.

“Isn’t this all kind of basic?” Maya leans over and whispers to me while the teacher is talking. Intro to Elements is one of two classes that we have together, and apparently it’s pretty easy for her.

“Isn’t this what your dad does?”

“Kind of, he’s way past this though.”

The teacher stops talking and looks at me and Maya.

“I know this is really boring right now, but give me five more minutes and I’ll let you get into groups and do some real work. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Yes sir.”

Me and Maya straighten up at our desks and listen for the next few minutes. The teacher, apparently Mr. Ishida, lets us get into groups or pairs and do some basic exercises.

“Now before I have you do anything concrete with proper artifacts or stones, you need to understand the basic connections between elements. Each one of the stones before you has a different element attached. There’s a fire, fortification, water, and lightning stone before you. Now these are all Salvus class artifacts but we still can’t have any shadow stones. Can anyone tell me why?”
A student raises their hand.

“They’re hard to find?”

“Not quite… How about you?”

“They make you a dick.”

“Please refrain from the colorful language, but you are right. Using a shadow artifact without the affinity will crumble your soul, though we have seen cases of recovery, it’s not worth the trouble. Please let me know if you feel any anger, pride, confusion, or anxiety in this exercise. That being said, you can now interact with the stones.”

Immediately students begin grabbing the stones and examining them up close. For some they do nothing, and for others, they glow with a bright intensity.

“These stones are very well calibrated. How well the stones glow, indicates a present affinity for said element. So touch them, but please don’t drop them.”

Maya picks up a fortification stone, it doesn’t glow but it gives off a dull hum.

“See Kenji! It’s humming!”

She presses the stone to her ear as the teacher walks by.

“I’m sorry Miss?”

“Maya”

“I’m sorry Maya, despite what I said, some of these really aren’t that well calibrated. It either glows or it doesn’t.”

“Oh…”

Maya seems visibly dejected by the teacher’s words.

“It’s probably reacting to this boy here.”

“Kenji.”

“Thank you, I promise I’ll have names down soon. Try out the other stones in the meantime.”

Maya puts down the fortification stone and reaches for the fire stone. Once again she’s only met with a dull hum.

“Try out a stone Kenji.”

She gestures to the fortification stone as it sits humming. Once again in frustration, it’s a miracle she doesn’t suspect me. I can’t even move so much as a millimeter or the hum turns into a low glow.

“I’ll give it a go, how about that one?”

I point to the stone she’s holding and she hands it over. The water stone immediately begins to glow before it ever touches my hand, and when it does, it’s a powerful glow far stronger than anyone else in the room. Everyone stops in that moment to see what has made such a fuss.

“Uhhh…I’m gonna put it down now.”

I place the stone on the table and the teacher approaches.

“Kenji, would you like to meet the principal?

“No sir.”

“I’m sorry Kenji, you’re going to his office.”

Mr. Ishida grabs my backpack and leads me out of the room.

“Am I in trouble?”

Mr. Ishida hangs a heavy sigh and a mixed anguish hangs on his face.

“You could say that.”

He walks me back across the school to the principal’s office, and leaves me at the door. I give a brief knock.

“Excuse me.”

And I’m welcomed in.

“You must be Kenji. I heard from Ishida that you might have a pure affinity for water?”

The principal stands near a closed window. The whole room is very dark and remarkably uninviting for a school principal. There’s a shelf of various stones and trinkets in front of him.

“I think I do?”

“Well tell me then. How do you feel on a rainy day? Or a summer one for that matter?”

“I feel as anyone would I guess?”

“Tell me Kenji.”

The principal turns around and tosses me a knife, it immediately glows red in my hands and the principal is illuminated. He’s a sickly pale with deep violet eyes and a modestly towering build.

“Tell me everything Kenji.”

I stand up in fear of the principal, I brandish the knife out of reflex, pointing it towards the principal. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know I should be afraid.

“Stay back.”

“I suppose tossing you a fire artifact was a bad idea, but I had to see it for myself. You’re something special Kenji, something this world hasn’t seen in a very long time.”

He slowly approaches me as I back towards the door.

“You can’t- I can’t… If I disappear-”

“Somebody’s gonna find you? I’ve heard it Kenji. I’ve heard it all. I’ve left fingerprints on bodies I’ve turned in to the devil himself. I’ve stooped to the lowest pits of man, and reached to the highest lofts of heaven. I’ve heard it all, I’ve seen it all, I’ve become it all, because at the end of the road, there’s always more evil than good.”

The principal brandishes his own weapon, a hatchet. A hatchet clouded in eternal darkness, stealing the light and energy from the room and him. The only exception is a burning violet glow in his eyes. It’ll kill him for sure, but he’s made up his mind long ago.

“Then why are you waiting?”

“Because I’ve been told by some very important people that you’re to be savored. You’ll go about your day to day, and I am to watch, observe.”

“Do you work for Ligatio?”

“You’re a clever one Kenji, but don’t we all? If I’m nothing more than a pawn, you’re nothing more than the square I stand on. ‘To be stepped on,’ that is your purpose Kenji. There more powerful people, hungrier people, and until you realize that, relish in the fact that my employer is letting you live.”

“But why?”

“Curiousity is a beautiful thing, it’s part of the reason I became a principal…”

The principal trails off at his sentence, and the violet glow in his eyes flickers for only a moment.

“But that’s when I learned where it gets you, at the bottom of a very dark, deep hole. Stay safe Kenji.”

The principal lunges towards me and flings open the door behind me. With a single push he grabs the knife and throws me into the hallway.