Katsumi staggered up the stone steps, leaving the singing mess on its own. His chest felt heavy, 'it was these damn steps' he thought tiring as he went up them. He could see Maya waiting at the top, peering down at him silently, "Have you reached a resolve already?", Katsumi looked up as he shortened the distance between them and simply nodded.
"I don't have much choice", he muttered under his breath, his voice wavering due to his excessive crying. When he reached the top Maya stared him in the eye, having to look up as he was a head or two taller than the small woman. "Where do we start?", he asked bluntly.
Maya smiled at him and replied asked him to follow her once more. This time she lead him to the court yard where this nightmare all began. "These will be your new team or class mates if you must call them that", she gestured to a large group of 15 or so people, "I need to sort out your room so I'd recommend you socialise a bit and get to know them." The woman smiled at him welcomingly and turned away "Also, think it'd be best others don't know about Amaterasu, you could attract some, lets say, negative attention". With that Maya departed once more.
Katsumi felt uncomfortable as soon as she said the words socialise but the negative attention part tipped him over the edge a little but he understood… He let out a small sigh and made his way to a broken down wall and placed himself on it. He needed more time to process everything.
He leant his head against a perch on the wall and looked up at the sky, the afternoon sun beaming away, he could hear the mutters of students around him, asking who that is and what he was doing here. Their curiosity only added fuel to the flames of anxiety that were brewing in him, he could tell the group was close although some evident clicks of certain people were obvious.
Katsumi closed his eyes and pondered, wondering what sort of shenanigans this path would bring, he could die but also could the hero that he read so often about. The one strong enough to lay armies at waste or take down a super villain and save the world, yet he didn't have the qualities of the cliché hero, so why him?
He heard footsteps approach him as he laid there, he glanced at the person making them. It was the green haired boy. "Heyho!" The boy yelled grinning and placing his hand in the air. Katsumi sat up making space just in case he wanted to sit down beside him, he appeared to be much older than the rest of the people here, if he was to guess he was in his 20s or maybe in his early 30s.
"H- hello", he stuttered playing with his sleeves. "You must be Satoshi, right?"
Satoshi took a seat next to him and crossed his legs and shifted his scarf aside, "That old hag talking about me again", he joked playfully, Katsumi looked around checking to see if she was around and heard that, that woman came across so bipolar he didn't want to piss her off, one minute she was a nice old lady the next she stood around like an angry military sergeant. "Yes, I'm Satoshi and you must be Katsumi, don't worry I overheard your conversation on the way to the bathroom although I didn't catch the whole conversation", he mentioned honestly. His smile was warming and Katsumi responded with a little smile in return. "I'm a tutor here and probably the best person to talk to about starting out, I'm the best there is!" He said confidently, nothing like modesty Katsumi thought.
Up close he was incredibly good looking his features were strong and defined, his white scarf only added to his aesthetic, his skin was pale and his body was incredibly tall. If Katsumi had to guess he was at least 6ft 5 or so. His hands were elegant, which Katsumi thought was a weird thing to think about but he couldn't help but notice the large ring on his finger. It appeared to be jade or a green gemstone with a symbol carved into it, similar to the seals he saw in that nightmarish room but not quite.
"Is that why you have a strange effect on those around you or-" Satoshi cut him off. Katsumi just sat there, irritated a little but he knew he meant no malice by it.
"Yup, I'm guessing you don't know how that works" He smiled awkwardly at him as if it was common knowledge. "It's a rather simple concept". Katsumi began to listen to him intently, a lot of people have being mentioning 'strength' and 'souls' with no real clarification to what the hell it was and it obviously contributed a lot to how things work here.
"Imagine your soul as a fire that sits inside you", he began to explain, "it can be controlled with the right amount of focus and take on various shapes, however the stronger and hotter the fire is the harder it is to contain and in extreme cases it can have various effects on those around you, my soul is simply too fiery to control, not even the elders manage to seal it away completely." He laughed and looked at Katsumi, who looked at him as if he was absolutely out of his mind. "Although you seemed to of handled that pressure well", he murmured in curiosity.
"So once you control it, then what?" He asked curiously. "A lot of people have been mentioning it with no context, its confusing and terrifying if it can have that sort of effect on people", the headaches he had were brutal, he could barely think and he wasn't even near him. Just how much were humans really capable of...
"Well... You can summon things, seal things, infuse it with weapons and even control manipulate the space around. You can basically do whatever you want with it depending on the flexibility of the soul, some can summon better than they can conjure for example. However, not all souls can be flexible and sometimes they're simply just small cinders". He sighed, "Although it has its limits, it's similar to mana in a videogame except when its completely depleted it can be fatal", he looked to the ground, saddened slightly.
"I guess when you put it like that, it kinda makes sense" Katsumi scratched the side of his head, "What if a person shares a soul?" He asked cluelessly.
"Ahhh!" He looked up from the ground, curiosity shining in his eyes. "That's why she was so keen to speak to you!" He said optimistically, it was like he turned back into a child at that moment and Katsumi noted that he completely forgets about personal space. "Well you'd be a special case indeed, consider it as a huge power up although from what I can see, you didn't need it." He didn't add to what he meant by that, but for some reason he looked interested in him.
Katsumi nodded, clearly understanding a little about what all that was about. "Thanks that was helpful," he was flustered, he felt completely clueless about everything and useless as usual.
Satoshi ruffled his hair, "No problem, kiddo." He swiftly stood up and stretched his tall body as if he was sat down for hours . "I'll look forward to seeing you in your first lesson, seem as though granny over there is back". He pointed at her over his shoulder with his thumb and waved good bye as he gathered up the rest of the students and headed into the building.
"Thanks again!" Katsumi quickly butted in before he left, waving. While the two said their goodbyes Katsumi noticed Satoshi stop Maya and whisper something in her ear, they were obviously talking about him as Maya passed a quick glance over at the boy. The two shared a nod in agreement and Maya made her way over to Katsumi, in her hand she had 2 pretty thick books, both leather backed and beautifully carved.
"I'm back and I have homework", Maya smiled as if that information was a blessing and placed them next to him. "I expect you to of read them by next week, you won't be attending any classes as it's a game of catch up for you". To be honest she expected more of a reaction out of him, due to the size of the books but he sat there reading the covers oddly content as if he just received a gift. "It will teach you the basics for now but it will be just enough to place you into a small training session in various areas."
Katsumi looked at her, "training? Like souls and other mystical arts?" He picked up a book and began flipping through the pages to find the contents page and scanned it thoroughly. Chapters dedicated to meditating, soul familiars/ summons, manipulating matter, replenishing… The list went on and on about things you'd only find in a book about witchcraft and wizardry.
"Yup", she responded happily, she noticed he seemed interested in the books which was something only a true elder could appreciate. "Satoshi must have already given you a quick briefing, for now however focus on theory studies and as I said earlier finding yourself some friends". She then gestured him to follow her, Katsumi picked up both books and rose from the mossy wall. The two walked back into the building and she lead him to a rather large section of it. A doors went down the wooden corridor, each with a designated number, it was notably quiet but he could see a classroom, or something similar in another room and a few students and a tutor talking away. "This is the dorm area, I'll assign someone to give you a proper tour tomorrow but for now I'd recommend you go home and pack your things assuming that'd be okay with your parents that is." She stopped outside a door , numbered 302 and pulled out a set of keys.
Katsumi looked away, "I'm sure she won't even notice I'm gone", he smiled falsely at her and took the keys from her. Maya saw right through it but thought it was rude to butt into other people's business but simply ruffled his hair once again, catching the boy off guard.
"Remember what I said, you can forget all of that now." She removed her hand and walked away smiling and his whole opinion of that woman had completely flipped upon hearing that, he had known this woman a matter of hours but he felt as if he could trust her. In a matter of a week not only did his life change but so did the world around him and he knew it was going to be way more than what he read in the books.