Bang!
In the middle of an alley, Jake was sent flying against a wall. He had several bruises and a black eye, and thin trails of blood were running down his face.
"Stay down Weyer," a boy in front of him said. Three other boys were standing behind him.
Jake looked back at the white-haired boy who was also lying on the floor and looking worse than him. They were both 10 years old back then. The guys in front of them, on the other hand, were older and were steps higher than Jake.
He had ended up in a hell of a mess for trying to help a boy he didn't even know.
"You couldn't turn a blind eye, could you?" the boy asked with disdain. "Why do you care what happens to that piece of sh*t? Do you believe yourself to be some kind of righteous hero? How pathetic!" the boy spat out venomously.
Bang!
He kicked Jake's head against the wall, before moving toward the white-haired boy, Seth, who weakly stood up from the ground and put his guard up. He slowly stepped back as the boys approached him.
The first boy swung his arm and Seth dodged the strike. However, the boy was far quicker and another punch swiftly followed. Seth wasn't able to react.
Bang!
Seth stumbled back due to the punch as he continued to hold his guard up. Just one step later, his back hit the wall at the end of the alley.
"There's no escape," the boy said in a mocking tone. "Hold him down," he commanded.
Quickly two boys approached Seth. Even though he struggled and fought back, they easily took hold of both of his arms and forced him into a kneeling position.
Bang!
The leader started beating up Seth.
"It's because of the likes of you that a whole city was destroyed!" another one of the boys said.
Bang!
"You're probably one of them, aren't you? A part of those terrorists."
"You're wrong!" Seth screamed.
"Shut up!"
Bang!
Jake powerlessly watched the scene from the ground. He looked back at the street. The alley itself wasn't long, or dark, and it wasn't really hidden either. They were actually close enough to the street for people to easily hear and see the fight, yet, no one even acknowledged their existence.
'It's always like this,' Jake thought. 'Even after all this time, normal humans still fear espers and prefer to keep their distance. Whether their fear is subconscious or not it doesn't matter, the result is always the same. On the other hand, espers probably decided that it wasn't worth their time getting involved from the moment they realized the one getting beaten up was a non-awakened esper.'
Non-awakened espers had always had it rough. They weren't normal humans, and they weren't acknowledged by their peers either. Due to this, they were rarely accepted for any job, even if they met or even exceeded the requirements. In the best-case scenario, they would end up living off their family's savings, as their families were the only ones who showed them any empathy.
This situation had only worsened since the attack on Horizon City two years before since it was said that there were non-awakened espers among their ranks.
Bang!
The sound of another punch brought Jake back to the scene in front of him.
"I might be an idiot, but my ideals are not stupid. I will become a righteous hero one day, and wipe out any injustice from this world!" Jake exclaimed as he stood up, channeling the energy across his body. He opened his hand and a small flame appeared on top of his palm.
The boys turned around and looked at him.
"You really are dumber than I thought," the leader scoffed, as he prepared to have fun with him, followed by the boy who wasn't holding Seth.
Needless to say, in the end, both Jake and Seth ended up getting beaten up to the boy's heart's content.
After fifteen minutes, the boys got tired or perhaps were just satisfied with the beating, Jake couldn't tell. Not that it mattered anyway.
"Why did you get yourself involved? It's not like you had the power to change anything, you just got beaten up for nothing," Seth asked confused as he struggled to get up. The pain spread across his entire body. Not only did he get the worst part of the beating, but he wasn't able to strengthen his body with energy like Jake or the other boys could.
"I said it before, I want to become a hero," Jake stated, offering Seth a hand.
Seth accepted the hand and got back up with his help.
"So you really are dumb after all," Seth said.
"Hey! That's not very nice considering I got beaten up while trying to help you. Plus, you have the same goal don't you?"
The question took Seth by surprise.
"I saw the little non-awakened boy coming out of the alley as I walked through the street. You stepped in to allow him to escape, didn't you?"
"I guess I'm dumb too," Seth sighed.
"What's your name?"
"Seth, you?"
"I'm Jake, nice to meet you," he said with a big smile.
"Thanks for the help, Jake."
"Don't worry about it, that's what friends are for, right?" Jake said while extending his fist toward Seth.
For a second Seth was taken aback. It was the first friend he made, at least since Horizon City's attacks, though he didn't really have any memory of that time.
Bump
"Yeah," Seth said, bumping fists with Jake.
******
"So this is it huh?" Jake muttered, his voice shaking with both nervousness and excitement, as he entered the hall, five minutes before the start of the preliminary phase.
He noticed the fighting rings ordered around the hall and tried to find a clue as to which one he would be competing in. Just as he thought about that, a holographic projection appeared above each ring, showing the ring's number and a list of names.
Jake quickly spotted his name on one of the lists and headed to the ring.
'So that's where they'll be watching from,' he thought looking at the two-way mirror that surrounded the hall as he walked through the rings.
When he arrived at his ring he spotted the other 6 participants he would be competing against. They were doing some warm-up movements while they waited, except for two of them who were chatting. Jake quickly noticed that they were both wearing Crimson Academy's uniform.
'So that's what the top academy's students look like… Integration stage steps 4 and 5, one and two steps above me,' Jake thought as he checked the Crimson Academy students' stages.
The other four participants assigned to the same ring as him were all from different academies however he noticed some of the uniforms. Two of them were step 3 like him, while the other two were steps 1 and 2.
'Well, no one said it was going to be easy,' Jake thought.
He looked around the hall and noticed that most of the participants were in the Integration stage, while a few of them were actually Manifestation stage espers.
Shing!
Jake was taken out of his thoughts as an HSA officer appeared in the center of each ring at the same time. They would be the referees of each ring.
Once the referees teleported into the rings, the holographic projections above each ring shifted, displaying the names of the current matches as well as the next match, in smaller font size.
[WEYER VS. MCKADE
Next Match: Pryde vs. Tilden]
'Here we go,' Jake thought as he stepped into the ring.
When he saw the first opponent he would be fighting he couldn't help but curse mentally.
'F*ck my luck, my first match is against the step 5!?'
He was stepping into the ring while carrying a rapier, an elegant weapon that reflected his status and the reputation of his academy. Jake also took out his knives from his pockets and approached the center of the ring.
"A pair of trench knives? Such a vulgar choice of weapon, though I guess it's appropriate considering which academy you come from," Mckade said with disdain once he was close enough. "I heard your academy was about to enroll a non-awakened esper into the tournament. Even though they backed down in the end, to think that Hyperion's standards could have dropped so low. However, I must admit, I would have loved to give that piece of trash a reality check," he said with a venomous smirk.
Jake clenched his fists with fury.
'I'm gonna love smashing your head against the ground,' he thought.