Electromagnetism

Arcadia, the biggest nation in the continent which was also the most advanced in the arts of magic manipulation, technology and culture.

In most respects, Arcadia was like any other nation. The exception was magic—an art that, until recently, remained shrouded in mystery.

However, with the advancements of studies, Arcadian scholars were able to further develop the elusive subject into something more comprehensible.

Mana, a power available to everything in existence, was how one would go about measuring magic potential. With such knowledge, Arcadians were capable of harnessing the volatile nature of magic in order to advance their civilization to greater heights.

Mages were born, wars were waged, peace was created. Even to this day, Arcadia remains a bastion of humanity and within its proud nation lies the most powerful and talented of spell casters.

However being talented in of itself wasn’t necessarily a good thing, at least for Cedric.

“Gah!” A young man of messy short brown hair was struck by a metallic trash can right on his back. Thankfully said trash can was empty which resulted more in an injury to his pride than body. “Ow…”

He was walking through the park in the middle of the city, a path that he needed to take every morning in order to head to work. Though a place mostly free of metallic objects, trash cans and drinking fountains were the main concern for his safety.

“Dammit… what is wrong with me today?”

At that point, he barely made it halfway through the park while being assaulted by flying trash cans. Despite him wearing rubber gloves and boots it didn’t change the fact that his body would still emit enough electricity to pull metallic objects his way.

“It’s not usually this bad… it must have been because of that notice… gah! My shin!”

“Hey mister are you alright?!”

A young boy wearing a backwards hat, blue shirt, yellow shorts and black sneakers came running after his skateboard had suddenly escaped beneath his feet and collided right into Cedric’s shin.

“Nngh… yeah… mostly…” He was massaging his shin with his left hand while the other one grabbed the skateboard and handed it over to the kid. “Be careful out there.”

“Mhm you too mister!”

He stood up and looked at his own right hand. The black rubber gloves did its job but was still a bitter reminder that he couldn’t let his guard down.

“Ha…” He sighed. “I should hurry up…”

While enduring more harassment of local mundane metallic objects, he made his way across the park. Around it, there was the business district where he worked. A quiet book store in the corner of the business district, it was the only kind of job he would manage to do without having to worry about his magic going rampant. An old man wearing a blue flat cap, jeans overalls and white red checkered shirt holding a plastic rod was just finishing pushing the metal shuttle up to open the store. Once he turned and saw Cedric, he smiled with one of his front teeth missing.

“Hey Cedric, you made it just in time today.”

“Ah, boss. I’m sorry for yesterday.” He bowed. “I got a call from the high school and they had me fill in the details for transfer.”

“Yes, yes you spoke to me over the phone, no need to worry boy.” He shook his somewhat crooked right hand. “So, how will the new high school be?”

“Um… in all honesty I don’t know. They said they wanted to keep an eye out on my condition while not disturbing my day to day life but I can’t see it being more disrupting than this.”

“Ah, isn't that good though? If they can do something about your condition you’ll be able to live a normal life from here onwards right?”

“Well…” Cedric twisted his lips slightly. A trait he had when he was lost in thought. “If they do find a solution, that is.”

“Now, now, don’t be too pessimistic, you’re young and you should enjoy your youth to the fullest.” The old man seemed to nod to himself as he entered the bookstore. “I remember when I first built this bookstore. My wife wished to read all kinds of books from all over the world.” He turned and placed the plastic rod behind the counter near the front of the store. “I, in my inexperience, thought she meant this. After opening it and showing to her, she merely laughed at my mistake, saying: ‘Any book read anywhere in the world is a pleasant journey with you by my side.’”

It surprised Cedric. He knew about his boss’ late wife but he never knew that the bookstore meant the world to him.

“Boss…”

“Hey, I’m not trying to get you to pity me.” He sat by the entrance with a creaky wooden stool. “What I’m trying to tell you is: Go and explore the world, you never know when your special someone might be waiting.”

Nevertheless the young man looked at the concrete paved ground beneath his rubber boots.

‘But can I really achieve this happiness you speak of?’

He wondered as a sharp memory of former classmates yelling at him invaded his mind and for a brief moment he shook his head as a way to ascertain himself that it was just a bad memory.

He then took a deep breath as he went inside the bookstore to sort out the books that were delivered when he wasn’t there.

‘Alright Cedric, focus…’

He went inside the store to bring out metal racks to the front before heading to the back in order to fetch the stacks of magazines in order to put them on display.

“It reminds me.” The boss started to speak while taking out a pair of glasses to browse the newspaper. “What is the name of the high school you were going to?”

“It’s the Grand Academy.” He spoke while using a box cutter to cut the cord tying the stacked magazines. “I was surprised when they told me my grades were on par with their curriculum.”

“All that studying paid off then.” The old man chuckled. “I remember when you first came here looking for work. Only you would work in exchange for reading any books.”

“It was a great deal for me back then.” He sorted out the magazines on display, carefully slotting them against the rack in order to not create any creases. “A student who could barely afford buying those textbooks being able to read them was just what I needed.”

He looked inside the bookstore at the various academic related books that were just a little too big to fit on his hand.

“Give some credit to yourself Cedric, if you weren’t as respectful as you are with them I would never have given you the job.” He flipped through the newspaper while squinting at it. “I need new glasses…”

“But this isn’t anything special.” He commented as he went inside to grab a white board and set it up on the sidewalk. “If anything, I think it would be pretty normal to treat books with care.”

He picked a few waterproof markers and started to scribble the volume of the magazines they were selling on the white board along with a doodle of the main character of the serialized volume. A light brown haired woman wearing makeup, a golden hairpin and tactical vest with a military hat on top of her head.

“You are too humble Cedric.” He looked over the newspaper and watched as the young man drew on the board. “I’ll miss you when you stop working here. I can’t make those with these old man hands.”

“I’ll make sure to come visit every once in a while.” He finished drawing and went inside to get ready. “Ah, but boss, how is your daughter doing? I heard she was admitted to the Grand Academy last year.”

“Luka? Well… she hasn’t been home for the last couple of months, she said she needed more time to finish whatever project she was working on.”

“I’ll give her an earful when I meet her there.”

“Haha, please do, you have my permission.”

Cedric smiled as he changed into the orange apron which was the standard color of the store.

Overall, working there was more of a past-time rather than work for Cedric. When there were no customers he would pick up a book and read by the counter.

However that day was different, when new volumes of magazines were released customers would flood the bookstore with an unyielding fervor to get their hands on it as soon as they could.

“I want one!”

“Two magazines please!”

“Do you have the previous volume?”

As predicted, the bookstore was indeed flooded with customers. The age varied between fifteen to twenty but it was mostly males. Thankfully for Cedric it was a sight he had already become quite used to seeing so there was barely any nervousness as he continued to assist each customer with their order.

“Cedric, I can take it from here.” The boss offered, seeing there was no end to them. “Go in the back to get more volumes.”

“Sure thing.”

He went to the back of the store and searched for more stacks but apparently they were all gone.

“Oh.” He quietly muttered before raising his voice from the backroom. “Boss! I need to go to the garage!”

“Are we out?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, be careful out there. They were doing some repairs on the sidewalk, some problem with water or something.”

“Got it.”

He carefully pocketed the key for the garage where the extra merchandise was stored. It was only a block away from the bookstore.

Some construction workers were doing repairs with heavy tools. Cedric gave a wide berth around the dirt to avoid being close to anything metallic that could cause him harm, but with his attention tunneled into the metallic tools, he tripped over the root of a tree.

“Woah!”

He was about to go face-first into the mud, but thankfully he avoided soaking his apron in the mud, instead both of his gloves were ruined.

“Hey Lad, you okay?”

One of the workers glanced at him briefly.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, thanks.”

He stood up and looked at the stained gloves.

‘Oh man…’

He hesitantly removed them and stuffed them inside of one another in order to clean them later.

He quickened his pace and reached the garage. Thankfully no other metallic object harassed him there.

“Let’s get this over with…” He reached for the key and the static sparked like a tiny bite against his fingers. “Yeowch!”

He almost dropped the keys on the ground but knowing that would happen again if he had to pick them up, he clenched his fingers tight around the key. He unlocked the door and headed inside—grabbed a stack of volumes and walked back out in a hurry.

‘Just a few meters more and you’ll be back at the store, you can do it, Cedric!’

He locked the door and very carefully made his way back, avoiding the workers, tools, mud , tree roots, and when he thought he was finally fine, he noticed another skater coming his way from the opposite direction behind a young horned woman.

His eyes widened as the board quickly zipped under the other young man’s feet and locked in his direction. He shouted.

“Watch your feet!”

The woman glanced back and was able to avoid the rogue skateboard. Seeing the threat clearly, he smirked confidently.

‘Not this time!’

He timed his jump when the board was about to hit him, but contrary to his expectation, the equipment simply stopped dead under him.

“Oh no!”

His right foot landed on top of it, he lost his balance and tripped forward. The stack went flying through the air into the skater.

“Whoa there!” the woman said, steadying him in her arms. “You okay?”

“Ugh! Sorry, I—” Seeing her hold his arm was about to make him flinch and fall backwards. “I’m sorry!”

But instead of the usual spark, the woman seemed unaffected by his electricity and simply had the strands of her brown hair to stand up from the static.

“Oh?” She looked at the floating strands around her. “Are you a deviant?”

“Y-yes.”

The skater rushed forward and yelled at him.

“Hey man, what the hell?”

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“You mage freaks…” He grabbed the skateboard and shoved the stack of magazines on his chest before leaving, clicking his tongue in annoyance as he stomped away.

The woman sighed quietly before extending her hand out to Cedric. She wore a confident smile on her face. Her long brown hair had a silky fringe swept across her forehead, tucked neatly behind one ear to reveal a pair of thick, beige horns coming from each side of her head. The style was professional, yet the way she looked at him wasn't cold—it was curious, as if she were inspecting a particularly interesting puzzle.

“I appreciate your concern.” He managed to stand up by himself. “But I can manage from here, thank-”

As he was about to bow, the woman suddenly grabbed his hand one more time. That surprise spiked his static as both his and her hair began to stand up.

“Oooh… interesting.” Her sharp hazel eyes focused on the top of his hand as she rubbed them with her thumb. Static jumped between them, but there was no painful discharge. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a lightning deviant. My name is Shizuka, it's a pleasure to meet you.”

The way she spoke while looking at his hand instead of his eyes made Cedric chuckle nervously.

“Cedric. It’s huh… a pleasure to meet you as well, but could you maybe, let go of my hand?”

“Oh—sorry.” She straightened her posture while letting go of his hand after she realized what she was doing. “Force of habit.”

“It’s okay. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

Shizuka bowed. Her beige high school uniform contrasted well with her hair that fell over her shoulders.

“In any case, thank you for letting me experience your mana firsthand. It was nice meeting you, Cedric.”

“Same here.”

She smiled before continuing on her way. He kept looking at her back, momentarily mesmerized, before it finally hit him.

“Oh no, the boss…!”