"Okay, let's focus here everyone! Make a line and we will begin to examine your magical abilities one by one."
After exploring the city, the heroes came back to the King's Throne room in the Castle, where the Pope was preparing the next plan on their schedule.
Following instructions, they lined up. Hikari volunteered to go first, and he was followed by two girls who admired him, then came Shuku, Nozomi,... and finally, Kenji Sano, the fattest among them.
"So what do I do?"
In front of him sits a single-legged circular table. On top of this table, there rests a transparent sphere, elegantly positioned on a golden base, and standing beside him is the Pope, offering support for the examination.
"Just place your hand on the Sphere."
"OK..."
Although Hikari has some doubts and hesitates, he still touches the Sphere with his palm. Instantly, the sphere starts emitting a bright yellow light upon contact with his skin.
The Pope started reading from a paper he was holding.
"Hikari Yokoyama, magic attribute: Yellow. Related to manipulating natural phenomena such as light, sound, thunder, etc."
"Huh, quite strong, as expected." The King commented.
The two girls standing behind him surrounded him with joyous celebration.
"Hikari-kun, you're so strong!"
"Yeah, such great powers."
"Thank you." He blushly smiled.
"Next."
As the Pope said, Hikari stepped aside to clear the path for the person next in line, one of the two girls standing behind him.
The girl places her hand on the sphere, causing it to brighten, and the Pope reads the color.
"Keiko Sasaki, magic attribute: Blue, related to manipulating objects and space."
"Your powers are great too Sasaki-chan!" The other girl cheered.
"I know, I know, just continues."
And comes the next one in the line.
"Kiryu Kuroda, magic attribute: Green, related to..."
As they conducted the magic examination, Shuku himself was left wandering in his own mind.
Since he was imprisoned underground, he had been thinking about his future in this world. Locked away for about 20 minutes, he had nothing to do but immerse himself in random thoughts.
Even now, he continues to dwell on the questions that plagued him at that time: What should he do next?
Specifically, how should he handle his bullies? Before being transported to this world, he had been in a fight with Kubo and decided that, for once, he would confront him fully to put an end to the mistreatment.
But now, should he continue? Should he maintain his decision to give Kubo what he deserves, even though they are no longer in a state of conflict and his actions might have been driven by momentary rage?
And should he continue even if he wanted to, when the people around don't have much sympathy for him?
As for Kubo, Shuku can see what he's doing from the back of the line. Both he and Masahiro are "playing around" with Sano. And "playing around" here means body shaming, humiliating, threatening, and forcing submission.
In the past, Sano was the one that was bullied by those two due to his "unique weight," with a frequency of almost every day and everywhere.
Shuku didn't like witnessing this, however, so he approached them and asked them to stop. But that's when they shifted their target from Sano to Shuku instead.
Among the two bullies, Kubo was the primary instigator, taking the lead in most of the bullying, while Masahiro merely joined in for his own entertainment.
And now, he must choose between remaining silent or fighting back, both have no good outcomes. It is this irresolute that leaves him pondering for minutes.
"Shuku-kun."
His personal thoughts began to overshadow the voices of others, masking other sounds, and disregarding everything else to completely immerse him in his world of thoughts.
"Shuku-kun!"
Only when Nozomi calls does he snap back to reality.
"Huh, what?"
"It's your turn."
"Oh, OK."
Three individuals ahead of him have completed their examination, and now it's his turn. He is well aware of what he needs to do and wastes no time hesitating.
"Shuku Ryuu, magic attribute... Black?!!"
The Pope yelled unexpectedly, grabbing everyone's attention when he noticed the sphere's color: Black.
"Wait, what's wrong about Black?"
Everyone has the same question, eagerly awaiting an answer. The Pope swiftly composed himself.
"I think I should explain to all of you about this. Eh, hem! You see, in this world, everyone is born with a magic attribute that is completely random for each person.
And they are categorized by the colors that the magic Sphere indicated. Red, blue, green, orange,... those are the magic attributes that allow the user to manipulate a certain aspect of the universe, such as objects, space, light, and some rare ones could even manipulate time.
Like the results of the previous examinations."
"Ok, but Black is also a color." Shuku argues.
"However, special colors like white and black, or transparent, are different.
People who make the sphere go transparent when they touch it mean that they don't have a magic attribute yet, but they can develop into any of those colors in the magic attribute list I've mentioned.
And white, are for the super rare and powerful, they are the ones who can manipulate almost everything in the universe, teleport through space, and go back in time,... because white is the combination of all colors. But there has been no record in the history of someone like that."
He takes a breath.
"Now for black, we call it the color of the void. Because people with Black magic attributes are known to be unable to use any kind of magic, permanently."
Upon hearing this, Shuku felt as though the sky was collapsing on him. He already had enough issues with his bullies and the king, and now the possibility of lacking magic haunted him. Magic was deemed essential in this world, especially for a Hero destined to save the world.
"No way. But I'm a Hero! There must be a mistake! How could someone like me doesn't have magic? Can you double-check? Or the sphere could be broken?!"
"I'm sorry Kid, but the magic Sphere never lies, nor it break down, we already checked it twice."
"No way... This must be a Joke..."
The ground seemed to crumble beneath his feet, and he was certain that this marked the worst day of his life. His titles had expanded to include being the bullied, the weakest, the hated, the suspected, and now the most useless.
All eyes were now fixed on him, and whispers spread like wildfire among the others, discussing the supposedly most useless member of the Hero squad. Some expressed concern, some laughed, while others remained silent.
The king's already negative opinion of him grew even harsher, and he glared at Shuku with utmost disdain.
Fear, confusion, and anxiety engulfed his mind, leaving him unable to focus on anything other than the overwhelming attention and gazes from others.
After that, they continued examining the magical attributes of the remaining individuals. Some showed fascinating and impressive magical abilities. However, Shuku's mind was clouded with negative thoughts that left him with no energy to care about others.
An hour later, the King served them a lavish feast in the Royal Dining Room, featuring a variety of delicacies such as chickens, juicy fruits, pies, meats, oysters, and anything they could think of in a fancy restaurant.
But no matter how delicious these probably two-star Michelin are, Shuku didn't have the mood to enjoy any of them. He put the food in his mouth, it tastes good, and that's it.
The negative thoughts from the magic examination still haunted him, making it hard to move on. He glanced around the dining table, checking if anyone was looking at him.
He notices Kubo's gang sitting next to the King and appears to be chatting with him; these suckers.
Hikari is sitting between two girls, and they are also close to the King. Regardless of whatever they are doing, they are all occupied with other things and none appear to bother about Shuku.
He was left out, eating and talking to himself in solitude. But it's no surprise; who would want to care about someone perceived as eccentric and "parasitic" like him?
Crouching on the chair, Shuku held onto his dish firmly. Little did he know that Nozomi was also worried about him.
An hour passed by, the dinner was finished, and each person was assigned a guard who led them to their prepared bedrooms.
"Your room is over here."
The guard escorted Shuku to his bedroom and then departed, leaving him alone. In an exhausted manner, he opened the door slowly.
The room exactly matched his expectations and mental picture of a typical castle room: The bed was in the corner, and there was a bookshelf, a desk, a chest, and a window directly across from the door.
He steps in, closes the door, and leaps onto the bed.
"This is the worst day in my entire life."
He complained.
Strangely, his exhaustion started to fade as he began to feel the softness and comfort of this state-of-the-art luxury bed.
"At least the bed is the only thing that makes it less bad."
He shifted, lying on his back, placing his hands behind his head, and gazed up at the ceiling.
"Ughh... I just want to forget all of this and sleep forever."
"..."
"Nope, I didn't mean that I want to die." He corrected himself.
"What will I gonna do from now."
Then he shoved his face into the pillow, gripping it tightly as if he desired nothing more than to unwind and relax after a very, very long day.
"..."
Knock knock.
"Shuku-kun are you asleep?"
"Nozomi?"
In the middle of the night, Nozomi arrived and knocked on his door.
---------Author's Note---------
By the way, if you want more information about the characters' appearances or if you've forgotten, here's a description of what all nine people who were teleported looks like:
Shuku Ryuu - A high schooler with black hair and black eyes, somewhat similar to the average anime protagonist.
Yuna Nozomi - A high school girl with long black hair and black eyes.
Hotaru Kubo (The bully) - A fat guy with short white hair.
Shina Kubo (Hotaru Kubo's sister) - A girl with white twin tails.
Jiro Masahiro - A guy with short black curly hair and black eyes.
Hikari Yokoyama - A handsome dude with blonde hair.
Kiryu Kuroda - A busty girl with brown shoulder-length hair.
Keiko Sasaki - A tall girl with a black ponytail.
Kenji Sano - A fat dude with short brown hair and brown eyes.
They all wear Japanese student uniforms, but the details aren't important. You can picture the uniforms however you'd like.
As for Pope Ceptio, you can use the Pope from "The Rising of the Shield Hero" as a reference.
And for the king, he is an old man with a long silver beard and hair, dressed in royal and opulent clothes.
I will only describe vividly the unique characteristics that set these characters apart from one another. However, details such as their facial appearance, height, and friendliness will be left to your imagination.