The cascade of footsteps was barely discernible under the ongoing chimes of the bell; school has ended once more.
Jyouji sighed, watching as the dull, mediocre and the fake people walk past by him, unknowing of the fact that he was trailing behind them.
'Ron seems to have broken up with his girlfriend. While Chelsea is deliberating whether or not to ask him out. Then there's the b*tch of a woman that dumped him showing off her new bracelet her new 'boyfriend' got her.' He paused and thought carefully, 'Isn't this her fifteenth boyfriend this year?'
The boy shook his head, feeling ashamed that such a promiscuous woman was in the same class as him.
'Why do they even bother with her? She barely goes to class and yet somehow still manages to get barely decent grades,' He felt disdain towards those who favoured the rich and wealthy.
Most of the kids here were either those that got in through some connections but could not get into private or even famous schools or those who suffered some setbacks just to get in here.
Jyouji was somewhere in the middle, his family were once in debt but thanks to a mysterious patron they had stabilised their household and paid back all the debts.
Although he was unsure where the money came from or why anyone would give them money, he was still grateful.
Walking silently as he kept his head low, he realised that the voices around him gradually became quieter, 'Hm? Why can't I hear them?'
Typically everyone would be boisterous and lively at the end of the day, but the hallways now seemed so silent that it disconcerted him.
He looked up in alarm and saw that all around him students were eerily still. "What the?..."
His sentence stopped midway as he swiftly inspected himself; he then proceeded to slap himself all to confirm that it wasn't a dream.
The slap resounded in the still hallways, despite time seemingly stopping, sounds somehow could be heard.
"Could it be a type of Time Freezing in where certain things cannot be stopped like the laws of physics and such?" The boy muttered to himself, recalling every last bit of knowledge he had accumulated; not only was he curious about this phenomenon he was experiencing but also how and why it had happened.
He calmed down considerably in the last few minutes, looking at things from a logical standpoint.
'One; I had fainted and this is a lucid dream of mine where everything is seemingly real but is not. Two; I'm having an hallucination where everything is slowed down to the point it seems like it had stopped. Three; someone has the power to stop time.' He listed out all the possibilities and recorded them down in his notebook.
He was mumbling to himself and did not realise that a shadow had crept over him, "Whatcha doin?" A childish voice entered his ears, but he could barely register it and answered out of reflex, "Trying to figure out what's happening."
Pausing, it took a moment for him to acknowledge it but he slowly turned to his right.
It was a young girl with a short bob style hair, an ombré of neon and dark green, her grey eyes gleamed with curiosity, her flowing pure white skirt rustling against his jacket.
He gazed at her feet which were nearly touching his hand, he pulled away in surprise and looked back at her in shock.
"Who are you?" He wasn't shocked completely, just curious of her identity, the boy naturally felt that her presence lorded over his as if she were something far above him.
And he was right, "I am ^*%#. Or as you guys call me Athena. Goddess Of Wisdom and Warfare."
His jaw slacked in awe, he was not a religious person but he did believe that there was something or someone above them watching over them.
But now he had seen someone proclaiming that they were a Goddess. He coughed lightly and asked, "How should I trust the veracity of your words? After all how can I be sure that it this isn't a dream?"
The little girl smiled, she seemed quite amused with his answer. "Well then, I believe a demonstration is in order."
After saying that she pressed her index finger on his forehead and spoke in an ethereal voice, "αναγνώστης μυαλού.*"
Jyouji then felt something encapsulating his mind, probing it even. It was strange and quite a peculiar sensation to him.
It was as if his cards were being revealed right before the game had even started.
As she let go the strange sensation receded and a sense of relief washed over him, 'What was that?' Rubbing his forehead, Jyouji gazed at the young girl with a look of contempt and doubt.
"Not sure if this is proof enough but when you were a first year you had a crush on Alex from your English class." At the mere mention of the name Jyouji started to blush, he felt something was strange but never thought that one of his secrets was exposed.
"How'd you know that?!" He was extremely flustered but he could not do anything about it. All he wanted was to know what happened so he could prepare himself next time.
"Calm down all I did was connect with your sensory system to mine through an energy thread. That thread intruded through your pores and disrupted a few nerve cells to simulate a certain sensation. By allowing your body to memorise that sensation the thread then hitched a ride with your electrical signals that passed through several synapses allowing me to access your vast network of memories, which eventually was passed down to me."
The boy was stunned by the sudden amount of information. He tried to process what she was saying but she was too fast, noticing this Athena felt helpless and simplified it, "Basically I looked through your memories by reading your mind."
"I see now. Well it fits well with you being born from a headache so I guess it's a given that you were born with powers related to the mind and giving people headaches." Athena shrugged at this, she was not concerned over her origins as she was way past it by now.
There were once many rumours surrounding on how she was born but Zeus cleared it all up and let the mortals decide.
She was actually born normally but humans thought that since she was a virgin and attributed to the mind, and more importantly the fact that Zeus was a son of Cronus who was a son of Uranus; they knew that Zeus would never let go of his position that easily.
So they created a legend where Metis was prophesied to give birth to an almighty son that would overthrow the King of Gods, and so Zeus 'forbade' her from giving birth by swallowing her whole.
But Metis was a strong woman and persevered for months, relinquishing her true essence to her child.
That child was Athena who was formerly destined to be a man but due to her prematurely fusing with the essence of her mother she was born a woman.
If she were truly to be a man then of course she would have overthrown Zeus. But he was clever and used his powers discreetly to transform her from a man to woman whilst in the womb.
Since she wasn't the prophesied being, the prophecy was then deemed fake.
"Anyways enough about that. Let me ask you, why are you here? And did you do all this?" Jyouji was quite suspicious on why she had appeared and not to mention to him.
Athena smiled, her cunning and mischievous side seeping out. "Because you're like us aren't you? You find humans an interesting bunch but do not care regardless of what happens to them. And yet you feel that need to protect your family.
We so-called 'Gods' aren't really Gods. We just have knowledge and power enough so that others call us one. True Gods are the symbol of perfection and yet we are imperfect." Runic symbols glowed behind her, they were oddly familiar to Jyouji, but he could not recall what they were.
She continued, "We are just people who have evolved to be able to encompass entire universes and bend them to our will."
Snapping her fingers the runes flashed violently. In a flash of light they were gone.
By the time he had opened his eyes he recognised the fact that they were in his room, "My room? Why'd you bring me here?"
"To make a proposal. Jyouji Chastain; in behalf of all the Gods in the universe we would like you to enter our ranks and become a God as well." She outstretched her hand towards him, she knew that this was a dealno one could resist.
He gulped in fear, unaware of what to say, "What if I say no?" Athena grinned and simply said, "Then we'd have to erase your memories of this encounter."
Jyouji shook his head. He didn't want to forget this mystical day. "What if I said yes?"
"You ask a lot of questions don't you? Well easy, if you say yes then obviously the power to control reality is and would be at your fingertips."
He thought of something and found it logical so he asked, "Wouldn't I have to have devoted followers so that my powers can grow strong?"
Athena raises her brow, she was surprised that he would think of something like that, but that was to be expected with many entertainment outlets depicting deities nowadays.
"Establishing a religion would mean that humans would mould your life and history and even what kind of God you are. A religion isn't necessary but having devoted followers is recommended."
Jyouji took some time to think it over and finally came to a conclusion, "Then along with those godly powers am I able to learn magic or give powers or something like that?"
Athena nodded in response as if that was obvious. "Well, okay. Athena; Goddess of wisdom, I implore you to transform me into a deity."
Blinding light entered his vision, but this time it did not hurt. Not much anyways...