Ed woke up in his new dorm room. It was a single dorm that contained a small bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. He ate breakfast and headed outside. His dorm was on the 2nd floor of a large complex with many other dorms.
"Morning Ed!" A blue-haired, blue-eyed woman waved at Ed. She appeared to be around 17 years old.
"Morning Hailey." Ed waved back. Hailey lived next door to Ed. The dorms weren't separated by sex since everyone got their own dorm and bathroom.
"Want to come to the training field with me?" She asked. "There should still be a few more days until classes start. You'll be pretty bored until then."
He nodded, "Sure. Let's go."
The duo walked for about twenty minutes before reaching a training field. This field was barren land with no obstacles. Lines were marked on the ground in a large grid. Each grid line had numbers marking them.
"I usually train my control here. I like to attack from a distance, so I use these grids to measure my accuracy. I'm going to aim for the 19th row and 13th column. Watch!" Hailey lifted an arm high into the air. A large chunk of ice began to form in front of her. It was 3 meters long and 1 meter wide. Swoosh! The ice flew up into the air. After traveling up several dozen meters, it began to fall rapidly. Boom! It slammed into the ground. "Damn! So close! I was only off by one column!"
Ed's eyes widened in surprise as he saw how far she could attack. 'Come to think of it… I wonder if my power works on ice? It's a non-living solid right?' He looked towards Hailey, "Hey, can you create a chunk of ice for me? I want to try something."
"Sure." She waved her hand and a fist sized chunk of ice appeared. She handed it to Ed. "What are you going to do with it?"
"I just want to see if my power works on it." He took the ice and began to send his mana towards it. It quickly melted into water and reformed into a square shape. "Wow! Looks like it works on ice. I thought for sure it wouldn't."
"Oh? What's your power anyways?" She questioned.
"Basically, the ability to melt and reform solid objects. He explained everything he had learned from when Ms. Willow tested his powers.
"Hmm." Hailey rubbed her chin. "So, your power works on any non-living solid. You melt, reshape, and fuse them together. It seems weird you can't control water. What happens if you leave the ice in a liquid state?"
"Eh? I hadn't thought of trying that." Ed controlled his mana and manipulated the ice again. This time, he tried to keep it in a liquid state instead of transforming it. Several breaths later, sweat began to appear on his forehead. "Ugh!" He lost control of the liquid and it immediately fell to the ground, solidifying back into ice.
"Looks like you can't make things stay as a liquid permanently." Hailey commented. "Your weakness will be anybody that uses liquids then. Still, it seems like a pretty useful power overall. I met an esper once whose only power was growing their fingernails." She sighed. "I always felt bad for him. It was such a useless power."
The two continued to chat. Hailey would occasionally shoot ice into the air. Then she would wait to recover her mana and repeat the process. Several hours passed, when suddenly, a quadcopter could be seen flying overhead.
"Oh?" Hailey smiled, "Another newbie. We always get a lot of new arrivals right after nightmare attacks. They're probably from the same place as you. Why not go take a look? It'll get boring just watching me train."
"Guess I might as well." Ed nodded. "I'll see you later." He walked towards the school at the center of the island. It took him nearly an hour to get there. Ms. Willow and a boy exited the building right as Ed arrived.
"Jake?!" Ed yelled in surprise. The boy in front of him was the bully that stole his scooter at school.
"Ed? What the hell happened to your arm?" Jake questioned.
Ed's fist trembled in anger. Bu-bump, Bu-bump, Bu-bump! His heart-rate sped up as adrenaline pushed through his veins. 'It was Jake's fault! I lost my arm because of him! He stole my scooter and locked me in the damn shed!' His eyes turned red from anger. The ground near him began to tremble as it rose into the air and melted into a mud-like substance. It quickly condensed together into a crude sword and landed in Ed's hand. Even though it was made of dirt, it was so condensed that it was as tough as stone. "I'll kill you, bastard!" He yelled as sprinted towards Jake with the sword in his left hand.
"What the fuck!" Jake quickly took several steps back. Flames appeared on his hands, and he hurled them at Ed!
One fireball barely missed Ed while the other one slammed straight into his face. "Aghhh!" He screamed in pain. The flames burned his left eye. However, he did not stop charging. He reached Jake and stabbed the sword straight through his shoulder!
"Gahh! Fuck! You bastard!" Jake screamed. He kicked Ed in the stomach and backed away with the sword still stuck in his shoulder. Flames began to appear all over his body. He prepared to hurl them at Ed.
"Okay. That's enough of that." Ms. Willow clapped her hands. A white light shone over the area. The dirt sword broke apart and returned to the ground. The sword and burn wounds on the boys slowly reverted to before the injuries occurred. Ed's eye and Jake's shoulder were now completely fine. "I don't know what happened between you two, but you'll have to suck it up. You'll be fellow students and hunters from now on. Work to get along, okay?"
Ed slowly calmed down. He glared at Jake before turning around and heading back towards his dorm. 'I'll cripple that bastard as soon as I get the chance! Before, I was weak. With these powers, I don't need to fear him anymore. So what if he awakened some shitty flame power. I'll make something he can't even scratch! Then I'll see how he begs for forgiveness!'
Ms. Willow turned to look at Jake. "What was that about?"
Jake rubbed his curly orange hair in embarrassment, "We didn't get along at school. What happened to his arm?"
"According to the report, he was locked in a school shed when the nightmare attack was occurring. When it caught on fire, he awakened and escaped." Ms. Willow shook her head and sighed, "Unfortunately, a mutant attacked him right after. He lost his arm in the incident. He would have died there if his father didn't show up to save him."
Jake's eyes widened in shock. 'He was still locked in the shed? Andy and Robby said he would be let out by the teachers?! How did this happen?'
Ms. Willow saw the look on Jake's face. "I do a full background check on every student that we enroll. It's my understanding that Edward was bullied at school. I'm guessing you had something to do with it? You may want to try and make peace with him. Even if you're an esper, it's not a good idea to make enemies of other espers."
Ms. Willow led Jake around to test him just like she had tested Ed previously. She had a feeling that Jake coming here would have a negative effect on Ed's new environment.
…
Ed's dorm room. Ed was lying down while playing with his new power. A rock melted and reformed into various shapes. Balls, squares, flowers, and other shapes took form. 'I'll keep practicing. My powers aren't useful for combat. When I melt objects, they don't become hot. I also move objects too slowly for them to be useful in attacking others. Once school starts, I should be able to gain some supplies from the invention classes. Just wait, Jake…"
…
Several days passed. Quadcopters continued to drop new students off. Soon, there were 20 new students altogether. Ed was ordered to head to the classroom for the first time. He entered the large brick building and entered his class on the 2nd floor. There was a chalkboard at the front of the class. Ordinary wooden desks were lined up in rows. Bright lights shone from the ceiling. Ed stared at the lights curiously. 'I wonder how they made these? Reef city only had lights in government buildings and I could never find any information on them in books.'
The class slowly filled up with the twenty students. The only face Ed recognized was Jake. He clenched his left fist in anger. 'Patience. No rush. I have plenty of time for revenge.'
A bald man of Asian descent entered the room. He wore a red jumpsuit and yellow cape. "Hello class. I am Tama Sai. You may call me Mr. Sai. You may also call me by my registered hunter name, OP Baldy! I will be your teacher for homeroom."
Mr. Sai passed out some papers to the class. "Today, we're going to cover the basics of what you can expect for the future. Each day we will have a brief home room where you may ask me any questions related to your powers. After home room, you will have power theory classes. Then, you'll all have gym class. Gym class covers power practice and combat. Even non-combatants must learn to defend themselves and control their powers. The final class of the day is an elective. You'll each go to a specialized elective class based on the type of power you have. Any questions?"
A boy rose his hand. "Mr. Sai. I noticed that all the classes together are only 3 hours and 15 minutes. Why is that?"
"Excellent question." Mr. Sai smiled, "All of you are still young. You need to receive a proper education in a proper environment. Every morning you will travel by boat to the mainland. There, you will attend a normal school with normal students. When you return in the afternoon, you will have classes here. Once we feel you are ready, then we'll also begin sending you on hunting missions during nights and weekends."
Several moans and groans rang out from the class. A high-pitched voice yelled, "Mr. Sai! That's too much! How can we possibly handle all of that work?"
"Now, now. Being a hunter isn't easy. We have an agreement with the mainland school to keep your homework to a minimum. You'll get used to it before you know it." Mr. Sai pointed towards the papers on the student's desks. "Now then, each of you received a sheet of paper. It currently lists a simplified profile of your individual powers. Each of you need to fill out the form. Pick a hunter name and write it down. There is a box on the back of the paper where you may sketch or explain any ideas you have for your gear. Please remember to include a mask. The academy and the Hunter Association will work to protect your identity to the fullest of our abilities. If you currently have no ideas in mind, then just leave the sketch blank. You can use a default uniform and order a custom one later."
Ed stared at the paper. 'My power is listed as fuses solid objects together? They really did keep it simple. Is it in case my powers change? Or are they worried about information leaks? Come to think of it, my name isn't on the paper. Do they only register us by our hunter names?' He rubbed his chin in thought. 'What should my hunter name be… Fusion? I don't really like the sound of it. I wanted something to do with metal, but my power isn't really metal-based… Screw it. I'm worrying too much. I'll just go with the obvious.'
Ed held a pen in his left hand as he awkwardly wrote 'Weld' in the box for hunter name. It looked like a preschooler wrote it.
"Okay class, you may hand the papers to me." Mr. Sai walked around the class to collect the papers. "Good. The papers should be processed within a week. Now, let's do some short introductions. I'll start. I chose the hunter name OP Baldy because I'm bald and super strong. My powers were given the highest possible rating of SSS by the Hunter Association. I am currently one of the strongest espers in the world. I'm a new teacher that just started here. I decided to teach here because my daughter is enrolled in the academy." Mr. Sai finished his introduction and pointed towards Ed. "You in the first row. Introduce yourself. Then, we'll move down the line."
Ed stood up and smiled, "I'm Edward Tesla. I like inventing things using steam technology. I awakened during the nightmare attack on Reef city. I chose the hunter name Weld because I can fuse things together. Hmm. What else… I chose to become a hunter because the government blackmailed me using my father. I lost my right arm during the nightmare attack because a bully named Jake locked me in a shed during the attack." He sat back down and glared at Jake, silently mouthing the words 'Let's see how the other students react when they find out who you are. I won't let you have an easy time.'
Mr. Sai seemed to have no reaction to Ed's honesty regarding the government, nor his taunt towards Jake. The other students glanced at Jake with confusion when they saw Ed glaring at him. It was an unusual introduction. Other students stood up one by one and did their introductions. Some stammered nervously, while others excitedly introduced themselves. Some only introduced themselves using their new hunter names.
Jake's turn came, and he stood up. "My name is Jake Pyre. I awoke during the attack. My power is fire… I chose the hunter name Fire Giant."
Jake sat back down. Several students stared at him and glanced back at Ed.
Ed smiled and thought to himself, 'Looks like you won't have a good reputation, Jake. Your power is fire? It's something my powers won't work on directly. Looks like I'll have to work hard to cripple you.'