Haruna Jumanji walked down the hallway with quick steps. The principal herself had called her to the the office and she, without question, had obeyed her order.
The principals office was located on the third floor of the main building but it was simply called "The Office" by the majority of the student population. The principal usually called royals to the office whenever something needed to be done that no others could do except them. Royals had the authority to do whatever they wanted as long as the principal gave them permission. However since royals lacked emotions due to the spell, no royal ever abused their power whatsoever, only doing what they were told at all times, only following the logical route in all things.
Upon reaching the door, Haruna made her way inside and closed the door behind her. Inside was a room the size of a regular house however it was almost completely bare except for a large bed over in the corner and a desk situated next to it. There was also an large hovering sphere made of water located in middle of the room which had hundreds of dots on it with small circles around the dots. This was where the principal lived and watched over the school, the watery globe able to pinpoint anyone as long as they had a crest or overwhelming magical power.
Haruna walked further inside, walking around the water globe before heading towards the desk where a mature woman with purplish red hair and bright red eyes was sitting while perusing over a paper. This was the principal of Mastik Academy, Aura Synto, and one of the richest people in Restaka Kingdom. She had no family nor any relatives and basically ran the school by herself, handling all the paperwork, students, and many other issues personally.
Aura looked up from her paper to look at Haruna and her previous focused expression immediately melted away and was replaced by a smile. "Good morning Haruna, I'm glad you could make it. I wanted to discuss something with you and since I have only a limited out of time with you lets dive right in. You know the boy from the slums who transfered in today right? The one I asked you to escort and give tests to?"
Haruna nodded as she watched Aura stand up from her desk and walked over to the huge globe of water hovering about an inch off the ground. "The boy arrived much earlier then expected, exceeding our expectations. He ran here using magic but refused to say what kind. Furthermore he had an engagement with Jakeem and was soundly beaten. He is currently resting in the Medical Ward."
Aura didn't say anything after Haruna had finished her report, instead just travelling around the globe before coming to a stop back where she started. "Water Globe, give me numbers on the top ten people currently in Mastik Academy with the highest magical power. This includes all grade levels including the elites as well as the teachers and myself. Everyone."
The large globe glowed as it spun around rapidly, growing brighter and brighter as the globe spun faster. Eventually is began to slow and words began to form on the surface of the water, large enough to read easily. There were 10 names listed in numerical order with numbers written on the side of the names.
"Take a look at the names Haruna and tell me what you see," Aura said as she stared at the globe. "Tell me if you can spot whats wrong with this picture."
Haruna stepped forward as ordered and almost immediately saw what she meant as it wasn't logical whatsoever. Placed on the number one spot where Aura herself used to be with a number of 40, 213 was a name she hadn't seen before but one she could easily deduce belonged to the slum dweller earlier. The name was Juda Aburriah.
"That cant be right," Haruna said, her voice emotionless as usual. "When I carried him up to the Medical Ward, I couldn't feel a single trace of magic power on him. He had used the last drop of it up to form a small barricade against Jakeems attacks. Right now he should be at zero, ranked at the bottom."
Aura frowned. "Are you suggesting that my globe is broken?? As you know, the globe measures the power they have in the moment. If you say he has no magic power at the moment then it can only mean one of two things. My magic power is on the fritz which is highly unlikely but something I would prefer over the other one. The other option is that he has THAT, and that is something we should be fearful of."
"I've never even seen a number past 40,000," Aura went on as she looked at the numbers. "Regular ELITE magicians have 30,000 and even me whose one of the strongest in Restaka is only 35,000. The Alternate on this one must be strong indeed."
"Whats an Alternate?" Haruna asked with a blank face. "I haven't heard that in my studies before now."
"Thats because they are rare and hard to find, however they're dangerous entities." Aura turned away from the globe and went to sit back at her desk. "Alternates are beings that are the exact opposite of the person they inhabit, a completely separate personality that feeds off of the persons magic and emotions. While the user may be weak, the Alternate however is on a whole different level when it takes over, trumping even trained magicians in magical combat. The only bright side is that it takes extreme negative emotion like limitless anger or hatred to actually bring it out and will only stop when it becomes bored."
"So then Juda Aburriah is a threat," Haruna said as she drew her katana from her waist. "Would you like me to go finish him?"
Aura shook her head. "No, that would damage the reputation to my school for a royal to kill him. I cant have a noble do it either as word might get out that I personally had someone killed off, slum rat or no. He hasn't done anything for me to expell him as Jakeem will just deny fighting him as thats how he always is. I'm in quite the predicament....so how about this instead. I need you to watch him for now so I'll be switching you over to the class he'll be in. If he ever shows signs of changing, end him then and there."
"Also, I want you to take this," Aura said as she reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a small earpiece. "Every day when you get back to your room, I want you to report back to me everything that had happened. Got it? This Alternate WILL be put to use while also making sure that the schools reputation remains standing. I trust you can handle this?"
Haruna nodded obediently as she placed the earpiece in the left ear. "I will do as you say. May I know what class he'll be in? Also, why not just kill him and then gloss over it all with money? Make it look like an accident? Just trying to follow your logic."
Aura smiled. "Because instead of killing him, I would really like to have him on our side. If thats possible, I want the slum rat to figure out what we're doing and solve the problem on his own. If he can do that then I'll spare him. If I kill him outright then I don't get thaf chance...plus its rather expensive to bribe people to keep their mouths shut. I prefer not to waste money even if I do have a lot of it."
Aura reached into her desk once more and pulled out a sheet of paper. "As for his class...you've heard of the Reject Class right?"
-------------------------------------------------
"Juda.....Juuuudaa....HEY WAKE UP,"
Juda slowly opened his eyes. However, instead of seeing the ceiling of the Medical Ward, he gazed up at a blue sky with bright white clouds drifting overhead. It was clear almost right then that, despite it looking and feeling so real, it was merely a dream. He always had these dreams every night when he passed out and there would always be someone waiting for him when he did.
Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Juda took a moment to admire the scenery. He was up on a huge lush grassy hill that overlooked a beautiful forest with a fresh breeze blowing all kinds of amazing scents towards him. His dreams were never in the same place twice and that's what made his dreams so much fun and made him happy to fall asleep.
"Hey there Juda, glad your finally awake," Someone said from beside him. "Welcome back my friend."
Juda smiled as he turned to his left to see one of his long time friends Jugo (pronounced Hugo) sitting beside him. He called him his friend because Juda saw him every single time he went to sleep to the point where he felt that this person was a real person. He had even asked Jugo what he was and had learned of the existence of Alternates which he found disturbing. However, Jugo seemed kind enough that he didn't really stress about it too much and just talked to him whenever he fell asleep.
Jugo looked exactly like Juda in every way except for one noticeable difference, Jugo had midnight black hair instead of white like Juda had. They shared the same voice, same mindset, and had the same things in common to the point where they could've been brothers.
"Hey Jugo, hows it going?" Juda asked as he shifted his gaze towards the gorgeous scenery. "How have ya been?"
Jugo smiled as he lay down on green grass. "Much better then you, thats for sure. That guy Jakeem tore your ass up bro. If not for me lending you my magic so you can regenerate, you would've died. I wouldn't have kicked the bucket as I can move to another body if it comes to it but I prefer to not have my only friend die on me. Plus your imagination is one of kind.....what is this place anyways??"
"I don't know," Juda said as the wind blew through his hair. "I just imagined it I guess. Also, thanks for healing me man. I know you went out of your way for me and I cant thank you enough."
"Please, its not like its the first time you got hurt and I had to heal you," Jugo said as he looked at Juda out the corner of his eyes. "Remember when you were 10 and you were out training by yourself in the Fantasia woods? You were overwhelmed by Fantasia and I had to switch places with you and kill them myself in order for you to live and then I STILL had to heal you before you lost too much blood."
Juda laughed as he recalled the memory. It wasn't a bright one to be sure as he was almost eaten alive by the Fantasia. He was only told what had happened afterwards and had confirmed what Jugo had said. If it wasn't for Jugo then he would have already been dead.
"Enough sitting around," Jugo said as he stood up. "Wanna go exploring while you wait for your actual body to heal up? I'll give you a head start...for like five seconds."
Juda laughed as he took off running, his bare feet diggin into the grass as he raced in ahead of Jugo with lightning fast speed.
Jugo smiled as he prepared to race behind Juda. "You really are one of a kind Juda. Your gotta be the nicest kid in existence to even get an Alternate like me on your side. Oh well, doesn't matter. Anyone who threatens our journey will get crushed. First on the list.....Jakeem Mastlelt."